LONDON – Serena Williams said she was motivated to play at this year’s Wimbledon to make sure her last memories of the championship didn’t come off injured as she was forced to do in the first round last year.
Williams, 40, has not played a single competitive game since last year’s first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich. There he suffered a hamstring fracture after slipping on the center court during the first set and had to retire injured.
He originally hoped to return in time for the U.S. Open, but ended up having an extended period away from the sport. But on June 14 he announced he would play at Wimbledon this year and returned to competitive tennis last week when he played doubles with Ons Jabeur at Eastbourne.
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Williams opens his Wimbledon championship against Harmony Tan and said a big motivating factor for his competition here was forming new memories of the place after suffering the lovelessness of retiring last year.
“Yeah, it was a lot of motivation, to be honest,” Williams said. “It was always something since the end of the game that was always in my head. So it was a great motivation for that.
“You never want any game to end like that. It’s really unfortunate.”
He added: “I felt like last year was hard. I felt like I had been injured most of the year. Then I broke my hamstrings. It was hard. I don’t think anyone wants to do that. never.So overall the whole experience was tough.
“Then, from there, I still tried to do New York. I gave everything I could, every day getting ready or trying to do it. But then it’s like, I won’t get it. I was hanging up my rackets for a a little until I could be healed. “
Despite his long absence, Williams would not be tempted to describe his specific expectations for this year’s Wimbledon. When asked what he hoped to achieve here, he replied, “I don’t know. I have high goals, but also … I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m not going to answer that.”
The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion aims to win the 24th individual Grand Slam title at this year’s championship, but despite his year out, he always hoped to return for another glorious opportunity. He made the decision to compete before the French Open, but kept it quiet until that Instagram post.
“I didn’t retire,” Williams said. “I just needed to heal myself physically, mentally. And, yes, I had no plans, honestly. I just didn’t know when I would come back. I didn’t know how I would come back.
“Obviously Wimbledon is a great place to be, and it worked a little bit.”