Serena Williams admits that she still finds it mentally tough to cope with certain parts of her health following her semi-final win over Julia Goerges at Wimbledon.
The American powered her way into her 30th grand slam final with a straight sets win over the German. Williams’ triumph occurs during what is only her fourth tournament in her comeback. She missed more than a year of the tour due to pregnancy and then experienced a series of health issues shortly after giving birth. Including a pulmonary embolism (a blocked vessel in her lung), the stitching of her c-section opening back up and a hematoma (swelling of clotted blood) in her abdomen.
“It’s no secret I had a super tough delivery. I lost count after, like, four surgeries because I had so many surgeries.” Williams said during her press conference.
“It was just routine every day, I had to have a new surgery.
“A lot of people were saying, Oh, she should be in the (Wimbledon) final. For me, it’s such a pleasure and a joy because less than a year ago I was going through so much stuff.”
One of the issues Williams continues to fear are Pulmonary embolisms (PE). The 36-year-old admits that she is still learning to cope with the condition mentally. Fearing for the worse when she gets aches and pains that can also be associated with playing competitive sport.
“Having to deal with PEs is more mentally challenging because I don’t know if I have a pain in my leg, I automatically go to the worst-case scenario.” She explained.
“That is not very easy. Even this week, I had a pain in my leg, and I went to the worst-case scenario: Oh, my God, I have a PE in my leg.
“It’s mentally very, very difficult. I didn’t know I would have such kind of traumatic thoughts, especially now that I have a daughter. I want to be around as long as I can to support her.
“It’s interesting how that mental recovery is actually taking much longer than I ever expected.”
Closing in on Court’s record
Despite her setbacks of the past, Williams heads into the Wimbledon final as the favourite given her record. She has spent 319 weeks as world No.1 and has won 72 WTA titles. Including 23 in grand slam tournaments. Standing in her way is Angelique Kerber, a player who she beat in the final of the same tournament back in 2016.
“I feel like she’s been playing really well. A lot of people haven’t been, I don’t think at the beginning of the tournament, looking at her.” Williams said of Kerber.
“I think the grass is her best surface. She plays so well here. She knows how to play on this court. She does it well.”
Should she defeat the German on Saturday, Williams will achieve another milestone in her career. Equalling Margaret Court all-time record for most grand slam titles. Not that she is concerned too much about the record.
‘To be perfectly honest, I haven’t thought about that this tournament,’ Williams said about Court’s record. ‘Not even once actually. In fact, I’ve probably forget about it.
“I think that’s a good thing because, you know, I put so much pressure on myself when I was trying to get to 18, then the rest, it was so much.
‘But as I said in the past couple years, I don’t want to limit myself. I think that’s what I was doing in the past, I was limiting myself.
‘It’s just a number. I want to get as many as I can, starting with – I still have a match to win, so I’m not even there yet.’
As a result of her latest win, Williams will return back into the top 30 in the WTA rankings. She entered Wimbledon ranked 183rd in the world.
