Serena Williams has done it all in tennis, but there’s so much more to come for her in another sport.
When I was a kid, I dreamed of playing tennis. But after a couple of years, I gave up in the hopes that I’d be able to get back the racket and maybe even the racketbag.
I had no idea then that I’d be competing at Wimbledon and in the Australian Open, the two biggest events in tennis.
So I started training for this season last week when I went to Australia with my friend A.J, and we went to the club where I’d be playing the first week of the season.
I didn’t know that the Australian Open would be held in Melbourne but I was told it would. At the club, they asked me what I was going to wear, and I told them that I’d be wearing a grey sweater over my tennis pants and a pair of shorts. “What’s the other thing?” they asked. I said, “A pair of sandals.”
I didn’t think much of it then. I remember thinking how strange that would be to be wearing sandals and to be walking on the court, but they were just right.
But what was particularly odd to me, since I was coming for the first week, was that my friend A.J. would be there with my son who she had just given birth to. But the son had yet to have his first teeth and was having trouble getting his first full breath. I had come to support him in his first experience of life so to see him struggling with the first breath was disconcerting but he was happy to be there.
It’s not easy to play this game, to be on top, and to be on the lower side of the draw. I’ve been coming down hard both mentally and physically. But I’m in the best shape of my life, and what’s more, tennis is in my blood. I’m not trying to replace golf, squash or gymnastics. I just wanted to stay in shape and