Serena Williams intends to keep playing after an injury wrecked her Wimbledon comeback, according to her coach, Rennae Stubbs. The 23-time Grand Slam champion, 44, returned from retirement in doubles last month at Queen's Club before playing her first singles match in almost four years on Centre Court, losing to Australian star Maya Joint in three sets. Williams was also expected to team up with her sister, Venus, in doubles, but she tweaked her knee during the first set and was forced to withdraw from the women's doubles event.
Coach Reveals Williams' Regret and Pain After Injury
Stubbs, a former doubles world No. 1, revealed that Williams believed she would have won the match had it not been for the knee injury. "She went in having no problems with that knee. So, it happens, and she felt it as she had already talked about in the first set, and it flared up big, big time after the match. She was in a lot of pain. Hence the no press. Sorry for everybody that probably waited to hear from her, but she was in a lot of pain," Stubbs said on Tuesday.
Stubbs added: "Getting her out of here as quickly as we could, in that amount of pain, was pretty clear. And then it settles down, hopefully, in the next little period of time, and her thoughts are to try and keep going. But, again, this is all up to her. We assess everything that she wants to do now, and based on what she wants to do, and she's got a lot of things to consider, her family, her businesses, but her goal is to keep going."
Williams' Return from Retirement and Hard Court Plans
Williams "evolved away" from professional tennis at the 2022 US Open but returned from retirement last month at Queen's Club, winning a doubles match alongside Victoria Mboko before the young Canadian got injured and they had to withdraw. The 44-year-old then lost a first-round doubles match with Karolina Muchova in Berlin. Those were the only matches she played before returning to singles at Wimbledon.
Stubbs hinted that Williams wants to continue into the North American hard court swing and could play a warm-up event before the US Open. "I'll leave it to her to discuss her medical stuff and how she's feeling, but I know that for her, trying to play certainly something before the US Open will be something she would like to do. She doesn't want to go and do what she did here, which is just play singles at the US Open. But at the same time, it's going to depend on physically how she's doing," Stubbs said.
Williams' Competitive Spirit and Practice Success
Despite having no singles matches under her belt before losing to world No. 87 Maya Joint, Williams impressed in practice sessions. Stubbs noted: "You know, she did whisper to me, I would have won if I had a good knee!" She added: "Look, I can tell you, leading up to the tournament, she was playing practice sets against players. She was beating players that are still in the tournament, in practice. I won't mention which ones, because I don't want to embarrass them. But, you know, she was playing well. And so, I think she would not do it if she didn't think that she could compete or be competitive. I mean, this is the greatest female tennis player of all time. So, you're not gonna go out and want to embarrass yourself. And she didn't. She competed really well."
Hard Court Advantage and Future Prospects
Stubbs believes Williams could perform even better on hard courts due to better stability. "Serena hits the ball as well as anybody still in the world. I mean, if you had seen one thing about what we witnessed out there is how well she can still serve, how well she can still hit the ball," the Australian explained. "Once she gets on the hard court, one thing about the hard court is, she's going to have better stability, right? For every single player, playing a first match on grass, especially when it's early days in the tournament. It's slippery. And so, you're always concerned. Look at what happened to Vicky in Queen's. So getting on the hard court will be a lot more sort of stable for her, and we all know how well she plays on hard court, so it's just a matter of getting her body back into the shape she wants, and then we'll see."
