COMMENTARY | Today at the 2012 Australian Open, Serena Williams suffered a rather embarrassing 6-2, 6-3 loss to Ekaterina Makarova in their fourth-round match.
For a player of Williams’ caliber to a player ranked outside the top 50 was almost unthinkable. Williams is arguably the most mentally strong player on tour and her serve rarely lets her down.
Yet this morning she seemed muted and passive. Perhaps she was trying to hold in her frustration and to avoid controversy. At one point in the match, she was cited for a foot fault. Not wanting a repeat of the 2009 U.S. Open fiasco, Williams calmly moved on.
The younger Williams sister clearly wasn’t in the zone and she actually seemed deflated. On the surface, we could blame her bad serving day for costing her the match. As posted on the match statistics on australianopen.com, Williams had seven double faults against her nine aces, and 37 unforced errors. And her winning percentage on second serve was a dismal 31 percent.
Yet Williams’ problem seems to stem from her general lack of match play. She was out of commission for 2011 because of injury, but that’s not the only reason for her lack of play.
Williams has always taken a cavalier attitude towards smaller tournaments, relying on her ability to peak at the majors, and it seems like it’s finally catching up with her. That attitude served her well when she was winning majors. But now it seems like her 30-year-old body could benefit from the training and fitness that comes with consistent match play.
Caroline Wozniacki may be boring and uninspired, but she has earned her No. 1 ranking by surviving the daily grind of tournaments year-round.
Williams’ attitude is coming back to bite her in more ways than one. Earlier this month, sports writer Chris Chase criticized her for revealing that she didn’t love tennis, and that she only loved winning. He called this statement a “self-congratulatory declaration” and equated it with saying “Just imagine what I could do if I cared.”
Whatever her motives, it seems that Williams likes to win majors, but that she wants to be able to do it while partying with Kim Kardashian in the off-seasons.
Perhaps Williams needs to find some new inspiration and to find a way to love tennis. Perhaps she needs to channel her inner Wozniacki (at least for the small tournaments). That way she’ll be in shape by the time the next major rolls around.