After Roberta Vinci’s shocking 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Serena Williams in the semifinals of the 2015 US Open, Inside Tennis editor and publisher Bill Simons talked with Billie Jean King about the match. “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t believe it,” King said. “I still can’t believe it.”
INSIDE TENNIS: Because?
BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, she [Roberta Vinci] has great hands, and she played a really smart game, she gave her no pace. And Serena got tight.
IT: Do you think it was the pressure?
BJK: The occasion – I’m sure it’s hard. She’s going to have to tell you her truth. I don’t know, I wasn’t out there, I’m not her. From observation, they [Vinci’s team] had a really good game plan, they’d figured it out a lot.
IT: They moved her around.
BJK: And didn’t give her any pace. I felt like it was 1974. The modern game.
IT: What was the most pressure you felt in your career – was it the [Bobby] Riggs match?
BJK: Probably, because it was a one-off. Just because of what it was about. It’s not like just playing for a title like they are, because you’ve always got next year, too. No, no, no.
IT: What has Serena shown in this run?
BJK: She’s been incredible. If I were Serena – but I’m not – before I got to the locker room today, after that match, I would have said, “Next year I’m going to win all four, non-negotiable.” I’m just telling you my mentality. I don’t know what she’s thinking. I’d get so cheesed. I’d be so, just like, “Gimme the ball. Let’s go. I’m ready.”
IT: If you were sitting with her in the locker room and your arm was around her, what would you say to her?
BJK: Everybody has matches like this, and you gotta give the other player credit. I thought Vinci played really well, smart. But you know, I think you have to be honest with yourself. You know what happened. But you’ve got to be good to yourself. Rod Laver helped me that way with a match. He said, “Billie, you’re always going to have three or four matches in your career that are so hard on you – you’ll be ahead and end up losing – that’ll break your heart. You have to just let those go and grow from them. He really helped me out. I was in a bad way, and he came into the locker room and sat with me for a minute. You just have to tell them, “Let go. The other person was too good today.” And if you got too tight – that’s for her to tell me, I don’t know – you have to just keep learning from it.
IT: Sometimes can you just feel history?
BJK: Oh, she was. Everybody kept telling her for the last six months or more. Especially today. You can’t can’t get away from everybody. Social media, traditional media. it’s just so much more exposure. There was not a big deal made when [Steffi] Graf did this like this [win a Grand Slam], there wasn’t a big deal with Margaret [Court]. With Maureen Connolly I hope they made it a big deal – I wasn’t around. Even Don Budge, who created it, probably hardly got anything out of it. And then Rod Laver, I think he did get a lot of mileage out of it, but he earned it – he did it twice. It just shows you how media has changed. It really is an expression of how media has changed.
IT: Serena came back so many times in the third set.
BJK: Usually she gets juiced when she’s down. This time she couldn’t get the juices going. I think she was overcome by the occasion but I don’t know what else is going on. Only she knows her truth. I think it was a combination of a lot of things. Vinci and her coaches had planned things pretty damn well, but Serena did not play as well as she could or should. I thought Serena would always win because of her serve, and because of the occasion I thought she’d rise to the occasion. It just didn’t happen. Vinci hit a few little drop shots with soft hands. It was amazing. She actually played almost a clay court match. On a cement court. And she reminded me of a player in the 70s, more in the way we would tactically think about things. I thought it was very interesting. It was 70’s tennis vs. 2015 tennis.
IT: Which player? Not Francoise Durr.
BJK: No, not Francoise. More kind of the way we all did. Top-of-the-middle serve, couldn’t crack an egg. We’d slice and go to net, chip and charge, drop volleys off of half-volleys, we would do that a lot.
IT: Great defensive lobs.
BJK: Very good defensive lobs. I thought she [Serena] should have smacked one of them. Because she [Vinci] was pretty far back. You know what, Serena’s done great this year. I don’t want to take anything away from her. People forget. She’s still won three majors, amazing. She’s still got some time if she wants to keep playing. Personally, if I were her and I’d gotten that close…you know, we didn’t play all the majors, we didn’t feel the same. But if I were today’s kid, by the time I got to the locker room I’d have said, “That’s it, that’s my next year’s goal, non-negotiable, I’m winning this, let’s go, let’s practice, whatever I gotta do.”
IT: You did that for Martina Navratilova one year when she lost badly at Wimbledon. You said, “Get ready for next year. Take a week off, don’t think about tennis and start again.”
BJK: If you want to. But if you want to, you’ve got to start now.
IT: Another thing you told Martina was that win or lose, we’ll still respect you.
BJK: We’ll still love you, too. You have to give unconditional love, always. Just like Oracene [Price] does with them. Oracene is the best tennis mother. She treats them the same when they come off the court, as far as, “I love you.” She is an amazing tennis mother. It won’t faze her. She’ll feel sorry for Serena. She’ll say, “I love you. Tough day.” She’s the same with Venus or any of her girls, really. She’s an amazing mother. Heart, backbone – heart, backbone.
IT: That ultimately has helped the girls keep going all these years.
BJK: That’s why they’re such a good family. They have the love. They’ve got the love. That’s number one in the end. Cause when she’s [Serena’s] old, my age, family and friends are going to be everything. You don’t realize it when you’re young.
IT: There’s nothing like sisters, also.
BJK: Their family is tight.
