In women’s sports, no one is more of a drama magnet then Serena. Now we’ve learned she can’t even bike down a Flordia road on a beach bike without trauma. This all came to the fore when IT asked a perfunctory question in Williams’s press conference after her convinving 6-3, 6-2 win over Russian Maria Kirilenko.
“It was sort of like you fell off your bicycle,” we asked. “And you're back on. Talk about that process of getting back in the groove. Is it weird? What is the process like?”
“Well,” said Serena, “I literally fell off the bicycle, actually. And I have a horrible scar on my shoulder from it. So it really hurt … It was painful, but I was able to recover. I got back on that bike and I rode home. So I'm back here and I'm playing again.”
The dialog with the press continued as follows:
Q. Did you say you literally fell off a bicycle sometime in the last year?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I literally fell off a bike. It was a disaster.
Q. Details, please.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, it all started, I was riding in my community and I wasn't obeying local traffic laws. I was going too fast. And, uhm, then I just couldn't control the speed and I fell.
It was horrible. It was actually really funny because everyone was laughing at me. I had like this horrible scar.
The ambulance just so happened to be driving by. And I was so embarrassed, because [in] my community [in Flordia] elder people live there. I was just like, Oh, my God. I was so embarrassed. They came over, Are you okay? … I have a scar on my shoulder that won't go away. I had a scar on my face, but that went away …
Q. What kind of bike did you have?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It was a pink Beach Cruiser.
Q. When you're going down, what is going through your head?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm thinking, Oh, noooo. All I thought was, Don't fall on my face, don't fall on my face. When I fell on my face, I was like, No.
Q. Have you ridden since then?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I only ride stationary bikes.
Q. You were asking about whether or not there was a reason that you and Venus were placed there. Ever since you've been gone, players have been talking about the idea of women not being placed on the show courts. What further thoughts have you had on it?
Q. When was your accident?
SERENA WILLIAMS: That was in October. It was a disaster month for me.
Q. You were riding the bike with your bad foot in October, like in a cast?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I was deciding whether to get the second surgery … The doctor was like, Go home, do activities, see how you feel. I was riding the bike, I was running, I was trying to see how I would feel. Should I get it or should I not? I ended up getting … [Riding my bike] was doing just to try to feel out my foot. I was doing just to try to feel out my foot.
Q. You're the world's champion of tennis, the glass comes crashing down on you in Germany. What did you think? Oh, my God, what's next?
SERENA WILLIAMS: At that point, at the bike accident, I did. Then I was driving and my car stopped. It was a brand‑new car. I thought, You've got to be kidding me.
Then Venus looked at me and she said … I pissed someone off. I don't remember what she said now. It was so funny, though. Or she said, I can't hang out with you. It was so mean but yet so funny.
It was so many bad things that just had happened to me. How does a brand new car stop in the middle of the road? I was like, Are you kidding me?
Q. So [now] being put on Court 2 doesn't look so bad?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, God, no.
Q. You said an ambulance just happened to be going by. Did you just like hail it?
SERENA WILLIAMS: In my community, there's ambulances there a lot. I don't know how to say that in a nicer way (laughter). I was embarrassed, like, Get away from me, I don't need it. I got up straightaway. I was like, I'm good, I'm good. I hated that they were there at that moment.
Q. Venus yesterday said she's like a lot more confident than she was a year ago. Do you see that in her?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely do. She seems way more confident and she's playing way more confident. That's obviously in turn inspiring me.
Q. Why do you think that happened?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know. I really don't know. She's just working really hard and doing really well.
Q. You mentioned this very bad month. What's the single best thing that's happened to you since then?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, I'm here and I'm alive and I don't take any moment for granted.
FISH ARE JUMPIN’ (AND MARDY IS INTO THE FOURTH ROUND): After Robin Haase retired to give Mardy Fish a 6-3 ,6-7, 6-2, 1-1 he paused and talked at great length to his American foe. And Mardy Fish has been talking a lot of late on how he just used to eat pizza, how he was happy just to go a round or two at Wimbledon or was okay with leaving the French Open early.
Now he was proud to be in the top and, for that matter, the top American. Here are some of Mardy’s (“Summer time and the Fish are jumpin”) pres conference offerings after reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time. His best ever previous Grand Slam was reaching the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
Q. How does it feel to be the last American male standing?
MARDY FISH: Same as the French, right. It's lonely. It doesn't feel great. And that's not the goal.
I want the guys here. So that's a bit of a bummer …
Q. Someone suggested that last year you looked at the draw and it seemed so favorable for you that maybe you in essence psyched yourself out.
MARDY FISH: Last year at this time I was … maybe seven or eight weeks into a trip. It's a really long time to be away from home. Usually I'm out of the French Open by the first couple days, so I have time to get home and then get to Queen's. And this time was a little different.
Last year I was spent. Obviously I had worked so hard in that off‑season, the beginning of the year, to get healthy. And I had just made the finals of Queen's. That was pretty much my only result that whole year … I was still a little unsure of where I was going, how it was going to work, how all the hard work I was putting in was going to unfold.
Much different this year … I had a pretty good draw. But, you know, it's nice to sort of … when you step on the court, you're supposed to win. That's a good feeling. That's the spot you want to be in.
Q. Do you feel you are maximizing your talent at this stage of your career?
MARDY FISH: I can say that. I sleep a lot better than I used to just knowing I can sort of put my head down, knowing that I'm doing everything I can, hitting a lot of goals that I've wanted to hit throughout my career now.
So, I feel pretty comfortable about the … the decisions that I make
I don't worry about making the right or wrong choices anymore …
In past years, I really would have questioned.
Q. In what ways do you benefit going home between the French and here?
MARDY FISH: Just sleeping in your own bed for 10 days in a row says a lot. You just kind of regroup mentally, as well, because it's such a long year. Nights before matches that I play, I don't sleep that well, you get very nervous. You don't eat well in the morning.
To be away from all that, even for a few days, is big.
Q. A number of Americans have had their best success earlier in their career, Courier, Chang, Andy. You're coming on now. You had the good summer, the Colombia success, top 10. How is it feeling now? Are you saying to yourself, Well done? Is there a certain satisfaction?
MARDY FISH: I can appreciate it better. We played the Davis Cup final in '04, and I was 22. I definitely didn't really understand sort of the place that I was at. I was lucky to be on the team. I was 35 in the world, kind of falling a little bit in the rankings.
So I don't think I really could step back away from everything and say, Wow, I'm playing in the finals of Davis Cup in front of 23,000 people … setting the record there against Moya in the first match. I mean, I don't think I could really get a graspt.
I feel like I can now. I feel like it's much more satisfying because I can appreciate all the ups and downs that I've gone through. This is certainly an up. I have no idea how long it will last. Hope it lasts for a while.
Q. Was it a matter of sort of not really understanding full picture or the meaning? Was it a matter of youth or that you were so talented that it came easily?
MARDY FISH: A little bit of all that. Immaturity, just youth. It's like one of those rookies that wins the Super Bowl in the first year, he thinks it's that easy, and he never goes back again the rest of his career.
We won in '07, and I was there, but I wasn't on the team Q. [You] make that plane ride back and forth [to L.A.]
MARDY FISH: Yeah. We have a dog. We feel we have a family a little bit. She's kind of like a child for us.
Q. What kind of dog?
MARDY FISH: She's a Dachshund, a wiener dog, a hot dog. It's hopefully the start of our family. She's pretty spoiled. She has a person living at our house now taking care of her. It was nice to win today so we can pay for that.
Q. You're going to get some pretty decent prize money. What are you going to get your dog to celebrate?
MARDY FISH: A couple bones, I guess. I don't know. She's pretty spoiled. She's got a lot of stuff already. She's very L.A.
Q. When you were growing up, did you ever think you'd actually hire a dog sitter to stay at your house?
MARDY FISH: I don't know … Like I said, she's got a pretty good life, this dog.
Q. Talk about the match today. There seemed to be so much talking …
MARDY FISH: It's a pretty noisy place … You almost can't breathe a little bit.
Security guards are moving around when you're serving. It's sort of an uncomfortable court to play on. It's very noisy. Brad Gilbert from up above yelling down to Patrick [McEnroe] … It's like, I can hear you.
Q. Is that when Robin turned around?
MARDY FISH: No, that was somebody else. I'd love for that to be Brad, but that was something else.
Q. What was Brad yelling?
MARDY FISH: He was yelling, P Mac.
It's like, Bees, we can hear you. We see you.
