I digress from my usual football musings this week to write on Lawn Tennis. I am writing on one of my favourite players in women tennis and on the circuit— Serena Williams, current world No.1 and the younger of two Williams sisters.
It is worthy of mention that the Williams sisters came to Nigeria late last year on a coaching clinic and yours truly was involved at close quarters albeit fleetingly. They coached the young children at IKOYI CLUB 1938 in Lagos thereby imparting their skills on the aspiring kiddies and stars of tomorrow. It was a joy to behold for the kids playing with their icons on court and for many Nigerian aficonados young and old seeing them on our shores.
Back to my piece, Serena Williams’s 16th grand slam singles victory in Paris, France at the French Open competition final (otherwise known as Roland Garros) was breathtaking as she beat Russian Maria Sharapova in two sets of 6-4 ,6-4. By so doing, ended her eleven year wait for a second French open title.
With this feat, she is two grand slam titles behind former tennis greats; Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert(coincidentally both Americans). The 31-year-old who turns 32 later this year has been in the form of her life winning three out of the four last grand slams and only losing three singles matches in the last 12 months, an enviable feat I must say. Her focus now should be on an impending 17th singles title win in Wimbledon in the summer(that will be her 6th Wimbledon title) which will put her a par with Swiss born Roger Federer who paradoxically has seen his career on the decline.
Her gutsy performance and power serves are legendary as is her grit and determination to win. Despite being blighted by injury over the years, she powers on and seems more at ease with herself with a new French coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
Hopefully with this win in Paris there is an extra motivation to power on and break the records. Go on Serena…
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