Serena Williams described herself on Thursday as a tennis player, not a thinker, and as a chameleon who likes nothing better than proving doubters wrong.
MELBOURNE: Serena Williams described herself on Thursday as a tennis player, not a thinker, and as a chameleon who likes nothing better than proving doubters wrong.
The insights followed Williams’ run to the final after coming into the tournament unseeded and written off by many. She says after winning tennis games, proving people wrong was her favourite pastime and that making the final here was something she expected despite only playing four tournaments last year because of injury.
“I wouldn’t say for me it’s an astonishing achievement,” she says. “I would say I am happy more than anything. It’s not astonishing or surprising. Definitely something I have always expected. I love doubters. You know, I have a lot of people even close to me who doubt. I love doubters. More than anything what I love, besides obviously winning, is proving people wrong. Ever since I was young, even when I came on Tour, it was, Venus, Venus, Venus, Venus. Oh, and the little sister. My whole goal in life was just to prove people wrong. And that’s one thing I enjoy so much.”
She has certainly proved people wrong in Melbourne where column inches were written before the tournament about her weight, her fitness and her lack of match practice. Five seeds — Mara Santangelo, Nadia Petrova, Jelena Jankovic, Shahar Peer and now Nicole Vaidisova — lie shattered in the unseeded American’s wake as she stands on the brink of arguably her finest hour, having entered the draw ranked 81.
In her case there’s no intellectual gameplan, it has more to do with her animal instincts. “Well, I’ve always been mentally strong, I think probably mentally stronger than a lot of players on the Tour,” she says. “And I’m like a chameleon. I can kind of change and get my game going to whatever the situation is. I kind of adapt to all situations.”
The key was focusing on herself and not thinking too much. “I approach the game different. I focus on me. I know maybe what my opponent’s weaknesses are going into the match,” she explains. “But I don’t focus, ‘Okay, I’m going to hit three balls to the backhand and I’m going to hit one over here’. I don’t do that. That’s too much thinking in it. Serena Williams is not a thinker; Serena is a tennis player. Got that?”
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