‘It’s going to work out,’ Serena Williams’ coach said of her rehabilitation from her current injury.
In the end, it won’t matter whether Serena Williams wins another Grand Slam singles championship or equals Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles.
Serena Williams, who spent part of her youth in Compton playing tennis with her sister Venus on public courts, has won so many titles — and on so many surfaces — that her dominance is undeniable. She’s after a number rather than immortality. Her power game enabled her to dominate the court and reinvent what women’s tennis might have been a long time ago, earning her immortality.
The same drive that drove her to the top of the sport has kept her going when her body balks under stress and pressure, which has happened unfortunately more often in recent years.
She has withdrawn from the U.S. Open, which begins on Monday in Flushing Meadows, New York, due to a hamstring injury she sustained during Wimbledon. Her thigh was extensively bandaged at the French Open, when she lost in the round of 16, and she had to withdraw after falling and hurting her hamstring in the first set of her first-round encounter at Wimbledon. For Williams, who turns 40 on Sept. 26, it’s become a familiar and frustrating refrain.
In a phone interview, her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, stated, “It’s been a difficult year since she’s only been able to play the Australian Open out of the four Grand Slams.” “First and foremost, she’s disappointed because it’s a Grand Slam, and it’s also her home Grand Slam. So there are two main reasons for my sadness. “
For a long time, Williams did a good job of defying the passage of time. After a perilous 2017 pregnancy complicated by a caesarean section and blood clots, she pulled off a near-miracle to reach the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018 and again in 2019.
This year, she advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open, where she was defeated by eventual winner Naomi Osaka.
Then came the injuries, and the uncertainty about when she would return, much less if she would be able to return to her previous level of performance. It’s little comfort, but she’s not the only one who’s had to restrict her match play due to medical issues: Roger Federer, who turned 40 this year, said two weeks ago that he would require a third surgery on his right knee and would sidelined for “several months.” Rafael Nadal, a sprightly 35-year-old Spaniard, withdrew from the US Open due to a persistent foot issue.
The dazzling lights of New York will be unmistakably darker without them. Every time they perform, it’s a reason to rejoice. It’s a desire unmet every time they withdraw or retire.
During a conference call held before Williams’ withdrawal from the Open, former tennis great John McEnroe, now an ESPN analyst, stated, “Hopefully she goes out on her terms.” “In any case, she is, in my opinion, the best female player who has ever played, and one of the finest athletes, period, who has ever played. I don’t believe she has to be concerned about winning another one. But I’m sure she’d love to be able to do that if it were possible. “
After she partially tore her hamstring at Wimbledon, Mouratoglou claimed the schedule didn’t give Serena Williams enough time to recuperate and prepare for the Open, and a setback cost her two weeks of rehabilitation time. They didn’t want to push her since they didn’t want to hurt her in the long run.
For the time being, he thinks she should left alone to adapt to missing the Open and embrace the fact that her body will no longer follow her instructions.
“First and foremost, it will work out. We know it’ll just be a matter of weeks, “he added. “We also know that if the US Open were held three weeks later, she would be prepared. So it’s only a matter of time, and there’s no need to be concerned.
“The only question is what comes next, and I believe that in order to answer that question, we need to absorb what just occurred since it is still a huge shock and disappointment for her, so we agreed to take some time and meet again within the next month to talk about the future.”
That may put the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on her radar, which has been rescheduled for Oct. 4-17. “For the time being, all alternatives are viable,” Mouratoglou said. “All we have to do now is figure out what our future objectives are, and then we can make a strategy to achieve them.” We can’t create a strategy until we have a goal. “
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He said that he didn’t ask her whether she wanted to return to top-level tennis. “Again, we didn’t talk about it,” he said, “so it’s tough for me to respond to that question.” “We didn’t talk about it because we had a goal, which was to play in the US Open, and we focused on that. Then we just debated whether or not to play it, and we made our choice.
“And, you know, to think about the future, whether it’s with or without tennis, I don’t know. She has to digest and take some space with tennis to think right,” she says.
She is in desperate need of time. She’ll receive that time, and we’ll speak after that. “
McEnroe, who withdrew from tour singles play at the age of 33, admired Williams’ endurance but questioned whether she had ever faced the pressure he had at the end of his career. “At least with myself, I observed that as I became older, I felt more pressure and as if my days were numbered. He stated, “It ended up harming me rather than being an experience you can utilize to your benefit.”
“It seems that wasn’t a problem until Serena returned after delivering her child, maybe feeling she wouldn’t have many chances. Despite having four [Slam final berths], she was unable to perform at the level that she is used to. It’s tough to explain why that was. “
Williams is unlikely to win another Slam singles championship, given the depth of the women’s circuit,
which stacked with players who regard her as an inspiration. Best of luck to her as she pursues her goals,
but she should realize that she doesn’t need to break a record to regarded as the best in the game. She’s already there, proud, tenacious, and unmovable.
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Column: Serena Williams’ coach on recovery from her latest injury: ‘It’s going to work out’
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