On Thursday in Paris, in a way that only she can, World #1 Serena Williams defied a set-and-a-break deficit, her opponent, and herself, to reach the Roland Garros final.
Serena has been far from her usual dominant ways this fortnight. Erratic, sluggish, reckless, and distressed, she had already come from behind to scrape up victories against Anna-Lena Friedsam, Victoria Azarenka, and Sloane Stephens. Impressive for all the wrong reasons, her utter willpower and desire to succeed led her to triumph.
As she did battle with 23rd seed Timea Bacsinszky on Thursday afternoon, Serena was flung into her darkest hour of the tournament so far. Facing an opponent with a clean game plan, and playing with a confidence that – lacking experience on this stage – she wasn’t supposed to have, Serena also had to deal with the fact that her best form was still out of sight, and she was plagued with severe flu. Struggling to move during changeovers, let alone during rallies, Serena was a mess of coughing fits, shaky shots, rotten footwork and tears. Exhausted, the American couldn’t even summon the energy to pump herself up.
Yet when she was down a set and a break, motivated by nothing but a fierce desire to win, Serena pulled herself together to take advantage of two very important points. Bacsinszky had dropped her level slightly, and there was a crack in the door after a double fault and 30-30 on the Swiss’ serve. Serena yanked it open.
Those two points gave Williams the break back for 3-3 – her first break of the match. And from then on, for an incredible fourth time, everything was downhill. Struggle she did, but Serena did not drop another game.
As the scenes unfolded, the tennis world watched in awe. Well… except for one or two exceptions:
Let me introduce you to Tara Moore. Great Britain’s World #401 is a fairly regular player on the ITF tour – although not such a familiar face in the finals. She is perhaps best known for her Wimbledon wild card showings in 2013 and 2014, as a participant in two matches that went the distance. In her first year, she bowed out 7-5 5-7 7-5 to Kaia Kanepi in round one. And just last year, she failed to progress again as she lost 10-8 in the third to Vera Zvonareva, despite serving for the match.
To be fair, that initial contest was hindered by an incorrect line call at a crucial point of the final set. But without a doubt, Moore should have triumphed in that second duel.
Moore is well-known for losing matches that she should really be winning. In fact, during Wimbledon last year, an interesting discussion took place in the commentary box (I know, it sounds crazy, but trust me on this one), over how shhe has the ability to be ranked in the top 50… yet just doesn’t maintain concentration for long enough to attain that position.
In the past she has often turned to twitter to bemoan the financial problems faced by lower-ranked competitors (specifically, herself.) And now she has turned to it to pour scorn on one of the greatest players ever to step onto a tennis court.
So as you can see, here we have a girl well equipped to advise the World #1 on how to go about a tennis match. No wonder she thought Serena should retire.
However, it would be wrong of us to simply brush Tara’s comments aside without looking into the evidence. After all, Virginia Wade – famous for her “Drama Queen” jibe at Andy Murray – effectively called Serena the same thing while speaking on Eurosport after the match.
So, here are the facts: we have no evidence whatsoever that Serena was exaggerating her illness – a flu which, after the match, she said had her feeling “more ill than she had ever been.” We only have guesswork. We do not know Serena personally, and we certainly weren’t able to feel what she was feeling during that contest.
What we do have are the reports of former tennis player Annabel Croft, who saw Serena “lethargic” and “sluggish” during her practice on the day of the match; “close to tears” and “looking ready to be sick” were other choice descriptions.
Why fake during a practice? Who will it affect there?
Jana Novotna, another former competitor, spoke along the same lines, as she recounted, “I saw Serena in the locker room, and she seemed subdued and sluggish.”
Everyone reacts when they aren’t playing at their best. It’s natural, instinctive. You throw up your arms, yell, slump, whatever. Everyone does it – especially the tennis players. They’re human.
As she fought Bacsinszky and herself, Serena didn’t even have the energy to encourage herself. With her illness sapping her strength and causing her fatigue, isn’t her disappointment and frustration going to look a whole lot worse? Maybe all she had the strength to do was slump in despair, and shuffle across the court in pain and misery. How could we know? How could Tara Moore? Only Serena knows.
The tennis world applauded Pete Sampras’ courage to fight through and win his famous “vomiting match” at the US Open in 1996. Why should we treat Serena playing through illness any differently?
What matters in the end is that it had no bearing on the match. Bacsinszky didn’t seize up as she saw her opportunity and she wasn’t distracted by Serena’s ills. She got her head down and she got on with the job. When she finally buckled, she buckled of her own accord.
What matters is that Serena Williams is one match away from claiming a staggering 20th Grand Slam title. And if she can come through the Bacsinszky Nightmare, she can come through anything.
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