Serena Williams felt ‘lost’ until Tiger Woods pep talks inspired tennis comeback – US Open diary

Getting by with a little help from her friends

In her essay for Vogue magazine in which she announced she was “evolving” away from tennis, Serena Williams revealed how some valuable advice from Tiger Woods helped her get back on court.

“I said, ‘I don’t know what to do: I think I’m over it, but maybe I’m not over it’. He’s Tiger, and he was adamant that I be a beast the same way he is!” she wrote.

“He said, ‘Serena, what if you just gave it two weeks? You don’t have to commit to anything. You just go out on the court every day for two weeks and give it your all and see what happens’. I said, ‘All right, I think I can do that’. And I didn’t do it. But a month later, I gave it a try. And it felt magical to pick up a racquet again.”

After the match, Serena opened up about feeling “lost” and how Woods helped motivate her to come back to tennis.

“He’s one of the reasons I’m here, one of the main reasons I’m still playing. So we talked a lot. He was really trying to get me motivated,” said the 40-year-old Serena. “There’s a few people, but we were like, ‘Okay, we can do this together, you know?’

“It was good, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was just lost, so many questions. When you can rely on someone like that, I mean, my goodness, he’s Tiger Woods, it was really helpful to get clarity.”

Serena’s match was once again a star-studded affair with many famous faces in the stands including Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Zendaya, Steve Nash, Gigi and Bella Hadid, and, of course, Spike Lee.

Zendaya is starring in a tennis-themed movie called ‘Challengers’ set to be released next year. She couldn’t have picked a better match to study up on the sport!

‘Maybe she won’t retire’

2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu was watching Serena’s match while waiting to get on court for her own second round and admits she felt inspired by what the 40-year-old American was able to do.

“She’s actually insane. The way she is moving… she continues to inspire,” said Andreescu, who defeated Serena in the final in New York three years ago.

“It’s incredible, it’s so motivating. I’m sure she can go deep, and maybe if she goes deep she won’t retire, who knows? If she’s playing well, it’s so hard to walk from the sport, who knows?”

Andreescu is not the only one hoping for that!

Upset of the day

It was the 21-year-old’s first top-10 win and it saw her join her compatriot Zhang Shuai in the last 32, along with Wu Yibing on the men’s side. Two more Chinese players could also catch up with them with Zheng Qinwen and Yuan Yue due to play their second rounds on Thursday.

Wang is thrilled to see her countrywomen and men doing so well and says Zhang, who is the oldest and most experienced of the group, has been particularly supportive.

“She’s so nice to me and she’s so kind sharing her experience with me. I’m really happy she can be that nice to me, she’s a great encouragement for me,” she said of the 33-year-old Zhang.

She also congratulated Wu Yibing, who like Wang, is a former US Open junior champion.

“I like his tennis, it’s very aggressive. I can learn from his tennis too,” said the left-handed Wang.

The word ‘learn’ comes up a lot when talking to Wang. She is like a sponge and takes valuable lessons from every experience.

She said she tried to treat the match against Sakkari like any other match and that she tried to “learn as much as possible from this match”.

“Actually I didn’t know that I could play that good like now. But obviously this is the results of working hard. Sometimes it’s going to be good, sometimes not good; just to accept that and keep working hard,” Wang told Eurosport on Wednesday.

“Juniors is very different to pro tournaments. But I was really happy to play well again here in the US Open. But professional tennis is very different, everyone is fighting for their life. I’m learning a lot on the professional tour in every match, it doesn’t matter who I play.”

It’s not just Wang’s tennis that has improved; her English has also come a long way. Wang says she’s been reading English books, has taken lessons online, and gets better by chatting to other players on tour.

The favourite English book she has read so far? A Street Cat Named Bob.

“I really enjoy learning English. Sometimes the translation is different in movies with Chinese, I’m happy I can tell the difference,” she added with a laugh.

Zhang, a two-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist in singles and two-time major champion in doubles, is happy to take on a mentorship role for the younger generation of Chinese players.

“Maybe 15 years ago, when I started to play on tour, a lot of super great Chinese players that already reached the top 10 or won Grand Slams, like Li Na or Zheng Jie, they all helped me and shared a lot of experience,” said Zhang.

“Right now I can also share from my side to help the younger players. I think they are much better than when I was young, so that’s incredible.”

Quote of the day

“Honestly, I’m just looking at it as a bonus. I don’t have anything to prove. I don’t have anything to win. I have absolutely nothing to lose. Honestly, I never get to play like this, since ’98 really. Literally, I’ve had an X on my back since ’99. It’s kind of fun. I really enjoy just coming out and enjoying it. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do that.”

— 23 years and 23 Grand Slam titles later, Serena says she is finally playing without pressure.

Stats of the day

• American teenager Coco Gauff struck a 128mph (206kmph) serve in her second round win over Elena-Gabriela Ruse, which was the fifth-fastest officially recorded serve on the women’s tour and the second-fastest in US Open history.

“I did see it said 128. I looked at it and I was like, ‘Whoa’,” said the 18-year-old Gauff. “I don’t know how that happened. It didn’t feel like I hit it that hard. Sometimes I feel like when you try to hit the serve hard, it still goes fast, but that was not supposed to be that hard.

“I kind of looked at her (Ruse) after. I hit, like, a couple good serves that game, likes in the 120s. She was laughing at her box. I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on either’.”

• Serena has won 23 of her last 25 matches against opponents ranked inside the top two.
• Wu Yibing defeated fellow qualifier Nuno Borges in five sets to become first Chinese man to reach the US Open third round in tournament history (since 1881). Wu is first Chinese man to reach the third round at any Grand Slam event since Kho Sin-Khie at Wimbledon in 1946.

“I think if there is a first time, there is going to be a second time, a third time. I’m happy that I’m the first guy to make it in the history,” said the 22-year-old Wu. “But the more important is this brings the hope to all the Chinese fans and the kids so we can have more great players in our country, which I think we should have had a long time ago.”

• No.5 seed Ons Jabeur picked up her 40th victory of the season, becoming just the second woman on tour to hit that mark in 2022. Iga Swiatek tops the match-wins leaderboard this campaign with 51.

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