Serena out to tame French Open demons
Paris, May 25: If momentum counts for everything in tennis, nothing will stop Serena Williams from winning the French Open for just the second time in her career here on June 8.
At 31, the superstar of the women’s game is on an unprecedented winning run going in to the consecration of the claycourt season at Roland Garros.
Four straight tournament wins at Miami, Charleston, Madrid and Rome (the last three coming on clay) and 24 matches in all for the loss of just four sets represents the best unbeaten streak of her career.
Nothing suggests that is about to end in Paris. And yet there are demons to be confronted for the American diva in the city she says is her favourite place in the world.
Namely, 11 previous campaigns and just the one championship win — in 2002 when she defeated sister Venus in the final — as the first step on the road to her famous “Serena Slam” of all four Grand Slam titles.
Since then a combination of injuries, lack of focus and claycourt calamities have brought losses to the likes of Katarina Srebotnik and, most surprisingly, in last year’s first round to France’s Virginie Razzano, which saw a frustrated Williams stomp off the Philippe Chatrier Centre Court in a decided huff.
Since her 2002 triumph, amazingly she has only once managed to get past the quarter-final stage.
All but down and out after missing 11 months in 2010 and 2011 with a right foot injury followed by a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, Williams has re-dedicated herself to her sport and the results have been hugely impressive.
A repeat of last year’s debacle, she says, is out of the question — the lesson has been learned. “Coming back I had nothing to lose and just really wanted to enjoy my career. You know, in the past when I played I was always so stressed out and always wanted to win, win, win,” Williams said.
Djokovic bans ‘Nadal semis’ talk Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal may be on course for potentially the most talked-about clash at the French Open, but the world number one Serb on Friday gave the ‘N’ word the silent treatment.
Djokovic, the top seed, and Nadal, the third-seeded, seven-time Roland Garros champion, have been placed in the same half of the draw. Having lost last year’s title match to the Spaniard, as well as all three of the pair’s earlier meetings in Paris, Djokovic told reporters he would not take questions on the prospect of another match-up with Nadal. “Novak has requested he would like to answer only questions about his first round opponent, nothing else to do with the draw at all, top half, bottom half,” said a tournament news conference moderator.
“I won a Grand Slam. I won Monte Carlo. That was important for my confidence level. Prior to Roland Garros, that is the most important tournament on clay.”
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