Serena Williams has lost only 13 games in five matches on her way to the US Open semifinals, a dominating performance that has talk of a quest for all-time greatest status in overdrive, even if Serena—calm and composed, even verging on serene these days—seems more focused on the day-to-day process of improving her game. After her 6-0, 6-0 quarterfinal defeat of Carla Suarez Navarro, Inside Tennis asked her about the coaching skills of her father Richard Williams, and the basis of her transition from a perfect season on clay to a hard court campaign for a 17th Grand Slam title.
Inside Tennis: A lot of people dismiss your dad outright or just say, ‘Hey, he wasn’t a player; doesn’t really know the game or know the Xs and Os; he’s not much of a coach.’ In conversation with Patrick [Mouratoglou, Serena’s coach and boyfriend] a couple days ago, he said Richard, your dad, was the greatest coach of all time—just look at the results. Could you sort of go into the Xs and Os or details and talk about why your dad was such a great coach, or where you think he lands on the scale?
Serena Williams: Well, I think that [for] everyone who in the past may have said my dad wasn’t a good coach, obviously the results [of myself and Venus] spoke for themselves.
And, you know, [the] multiple Grand Slam titles that we have won—I wouldn’t have won a single title without him and without his backing.
I think that theory [that her father isn’t much of a coach] went out the door years and years ago, maybe over a decade ago.
But, yeah, he’s just great. He’s a great coach. Even to this day. He wrote me something just the other day, and I really meditated on it. I thought, “This is what I need to do,” and it really helped me out during the match.
IT: Is it his eye for the game? His knowledge of his daughters? His motivation?
SW: Well, he’s just so innovative, and I think one of the reasons I’m still playing some of the best tennis at 30 is because he built my game and my sister’s game. He gave us a good foundation—it was solid and it wasn’t weak, so we were always able to grow our game.
I think that can’t really been said about a lot of people in their career.
IT: Rafa [Nadal] is undefeated on hard courts this year and you’re undefeated on clay. Patrick said this year balance was really important with your clay game. I wondered about transitioning from clay to hard courts, what the challenges have been?
SW: Well, actually, it’s a lot easier, the transition, because the hard courts have gotten so slow since when I started playing. They were a lot faster.
And now it’s just so many more balls come back, and it’s just almost basically playing on a fast clay court. I think the transition is a lot easier than it used to be.
A LUCKY—OR UNLUCKY?—13: After Brad Gilbert asked Richard Gasquet about a potential semifinal match against Rafael Nadal, Gasquet said, “Last time I won [over] him I was 13 years old.” Discussing a popular YouTube clip of the match that shows him defeating Rafael Nadal, Gasquet said, “I don’t believe it sometimes … I told my father after, He’s a big fighter.’”
FRENCH DIP: When Richard Gasquet defeated David Ferrer in a fiercely competitive five-set match, he became the first French men’s player in 20 years to reach the semifinals at the Open.
CALIFORNIA LOVE: Four of six players in the opening matches on the stadium courts at the Open tomorrow—the Bryan brothers and juniors Colin Altamirano and Mackenzie McDonald—are from California.
GO FIGURE: Richard Gasquet runs around his forehand to get to his backhand … Gasquet’s victory over David Ferrer was only his second win over a top five player in a major … In a mighty comedown, the last six players to beat Roger Federer have lost in the next round … Rafael Nadal has won 27 of his last 28 matches against fellow Spaniards … David Ferrer has progressed further than Roger Federer in three of the last four Slams.
BREAK HIS SPIRIT? TRY BREAKING HIS SERVE: Going into the semifinals, Rafa has yet to drop serve at the Open this year.
AGE AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A NUMBER, OR 30 IS THE NEW 20: Three of the four women’s semifinalists at this year’s Open—Na Li, Flavia Pennetta, and Serena Williams—are 30 or older.
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: Flavia Pennetta had reached the quarterfinals of the US Open two times before today, when she defeated Roberta Vinci in an all-Italian showdown to book her first-ever semifinal appearance at a major. But she’s a little bored with queries about how New York bring out her best. “Everyone ask me the same things—it’s every day the same question,” she said in her post-match presser. “I just enjoy play[ing] here.” BTW: Pennetta’s quarterfinal run in 2009 included a win over an unraveling Vera Zvonareva that qualifies—thanks to Pennetta brilliantly fighting off six match points, and Zvonareva subsequent meltdown—as one of the most dramatic US Open matches of the past decade.
A DANGEROUS GAME: When Serena Williams pegged Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the net during her and Venus’s doubles win, it brought to mind the most famous example of a player being hit by a ball this year: a Rafa Nadal backhand that struck Novak Djokovic in Montreal.
NO WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS: The New York Times devoted a profile to the US Open’s official seamstress, Kathy Karadza, whose biggest challenge involves late requests to sew sponsors’ patches to players’ outfits before matches.
BUZZ CUTS: GQ’s website ran a short feature on the Open’s official hairstylist, Julian Farel, who also has a pop-up shop on site. “This year we kept his hair longer in the front,” Farel said about Novak Djokovic. “He has some side bangs going on, which make him look much softer.” BTW: Djokovic’s quarterfinal against Mikhail Youzhny could be deemed the Battle of the Buzz Cuts—the signature haircut of both players—if Djokovic wasn’t growing his hair out.
MURRAY AND THE WTA: In recent years, many players on the ATP Tour have expressed resentment about women’s players receiving equal pay at the majors and sometimes dismissive attitudes about the women’s game. “Ninety-nine percent of male tennis players can’t stand women’s tennis,” Janko Tipsarevic said in 2008. “There’s no other sport with such a huge disparity concerning level of play and the money women make. A friend of mine says a woman who wins a Slam should only earn enough to play for her plane ticket back home.” More recently, Gilles Simon stirred controversy last year by criticizing equal pay.
Roger Federer has expressed admiration for Svetlana Kuznetosva’s game, and Novak Djokovic’s first coach was a woman, Jelena Gencic, but the sole top ATP player prone to talk about the women’s game in fan terms is Andy Murray. At the age of 18, Murray drew some boos from a crowd for saying he and an opponent “played like women” in a match riddled with service breaks. But in the past year, he’s tweeted appreciative remarks about the Urszula Radwanska–Venus Williams match the French Open and sung the praises of Serena Williams.
Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times recently spoke with Murray about the women’s game. The defending champ Scot said his favorite player to watch is Agnieszka Radwanska (who, Rothenberg notes, just happens to have been described as “Andy Murray in a skirt” by the Polisn press), because “she just plays with variety … the stuff that my mom [as a teacher] used to encourage me to use. On the subject of equal prize money, Murray opined that difference in sets played by men and women makes for different sports. “I think the women should play best-of-five sets,” he said. “I don’t see why they couldn’t do it. It would mean the days in the Slams are a little bit longer. And maybe it doesn’t have to be from the first rounds … They used to do it in some of the big finals on the WTA tour, so it’s not like women cannot play five sets. Steffi Graf and [Martina] Navratilova and those players were unbelievable over five sets, and in great shape.”
FAMILY MATTERS: On the subject of her boyfriend, Stefan “Redfoo” Gordy, Vika told ESPN, “He’s a party person, but he’s such a nerd. I have a nickname for him—I call him ‘Party Urkel’.”
HEADLINES: “No Djok: Novak in Laugher” “Bagels and a Roll” “Serena Sails to Semis” “Quick Win No Djokovic” “Hewitt Just Can’t Do It”
SERVICE WORK: The man with the biggest serve in tennis, John Isner, is donating 20 percent of his earnings at the US Open to America’s VetDogs, a nonprofit that trains service dogs for disabled veterans.
JUST WONDERING: US Open sensation Vicky Duval gets great ratings from insiders, and she’s a charming girl and who dazzled last nite on Jay Leno—but will she be a one-Open-wonder like Melanie Oudin, or grow to become a top player on the tour? BTW: Duval told Leno her first thought upon meeting hero Venus—”Oh, gosh, you are talking to me?”
VERY SUPERSTITIOUS: Serena Williams makes a point of always shaking the umpire’s hand first after her matches. But in her last two matches at the Open, she’s let her opponents—Sloane Stephens, and Carla Suarez Navarro (who she’d just double-bageled on Suarez Navarro’s birthday) get the first handshake. “Before Federer’s defeat,” Jon Wertheim wrote. “Sloane beating Serena to the umpire’s chair was the upset of the tournament.”
IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR: “It’s been amazing,” Serena said, when asked about Bob and Mike Bryan’s Grand Slam campaign in 2013, going on to voice a little siblings rivalry: “I’m a little jealous because Venus and I haven’t quite won a Grand Slam in doubles.”
Saying that she’s “rooting for them to go all the way,” Serena added, “Their energy is so great. I mean, whether they are up or they’re down, you can’t tell. It seems like they’re just having the time of the their lives on the court.
For me personally, I love the dynamic that they’re brothers. I can really relate to that because I play doubles with my sister. We don’t have that energy, but we definitely have so much fun out there.” As for the best part of playing doubles with Venus, Serena joked, “I can always blame her if something goes wrong. It’s never my fault.”
