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Serena Williams says ‘nothing worked’ in French Open second-round defeat Serena Williams says ‘nothing worked’ in French Open second-round defeat
(about 3 hours later)
Serena Williams, knocked out of the French Open in straight sets by Garbiñe Muguruza on Wednesday, was puzzled in trying to assess how she lost to the 35th seed, whom she beat 6-2, 6-0 at the Australian Open last year. The French Open slid towards anarchy on the fourth day. The defending champion and world No1 Serena Williams is out, as is her sister, Venus, joining the No2 seed Li Na, as well as the Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, the game’s glamour boy, Grigor Dimitrov, and Japan’s latest hope, Kei Nishikori, who had already left gaping holes in the men’s draw.
“I don’t think anything worked for me today,” she said. “Just nothing really worked.” She discounted injury as an excuse, although she had to withdraw from Madrid earlier this month with a thigh strain, returning to win in Rome last weekend. Serena’s departure means the top two seeds are gone from the draw after two rounds, the earliest such high-class cull in the tournament’s history. In a summer of doubt, the only certainty in tennis would seem to be that the next surprise is not far away.
“No, I just can’t serve,” she said, reflecting with no little self-deprecation on five double faults in just 64 minutes. In 288 slam matches, Williams has never won fewer games than the four she managed on Wednesday. “My serve hasn’t been good yet – I can’t say this whole tournament, because my tournament didn’t last long, but just in general. Williams might still be the best player in the world. And she could yet add to her collection of 17 grand slam titles, her next opportunity arriving at Wimbledon in June. But the 32-year-old American looked anything but a champion in Paris, either during her desultory 6-2, 6-2 second-round defeat by the 20-year-old Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza, when she was near tears towards the end – or in a press conference afterwards that had all the buzz of a coroner’s inquest.
“It was one of those days. You can’t be on every day, and, gosh, I hate to be off during a grand slam. It happens. It’s not the end of the world. It is what it is. She plays really well, obviously. I have actually never seen her play like this. So, we’ll see if, hopefully, she can keep it up, keep her form up and continue to play like this. Garbiñe played really well, really smart. I didn’t adapt.” Serena – who would not blame injury or the occasional gusts of wind on a grey day for her error-strewn tennis – looked beat, sounded exasperated and, once she had tetchily batted away questions about the most disappointing performance of her career, could not wait to leave a place where she has won two of her slam titles.
Williams said she was not distracted by the possibility of a third-round match against her sister, Venus, who lost in three sets to the rising Slovak Anna Schmiedlova – the third time in a slam they have left a slam on the same day. In an opening few days of rumbling upsets, hers was by some way the biggest: in 288 slam matches, Williams has never won fewer games than the four she eked out against Muguruza, who is 35 in the world and took just two games off her when they last met, which was in the 2013 Australian Open.
“No, it wasn’t on my mind,” she said. “I’m just walking out when she was late in the third. It’s not easy. I love it here, but there’s always next year. At least I won’t have any points to defend.” She added, only half-joking: “I’m going to go home and work five times as hard to make sure I never lose again.” Across Roland Garros there is now a mood of insurrection, lightened only by regulation wins later in the afternoon for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal play on Thursday against unranked opponents, respectively the Australian Marinko “Mad Dog” Matosevic and the highly promising Austrian Dominic Thiem, and will be hoping that this nonsense will cease.
Nor would she blame the conditions, which were glum but not awful. “No, they weren’t difficult. Only I think in one game it got windy.” But, at the age of 32 with 17 slam titles to her name, the American has a vast range of business interests and charities to keep her occupied, and might not be as focused as she once was. Serena, meanwhile, has some damage to repair. “I don’t think anything worked for me today,” she said. “Garbiñe played really well, really smart. I didn’t adapt.”
“I just feel like I don’t have to win another match,” she said. “I don’t have to win another tournament. Everything and every day is a bonus for me. Obviously I want to do the best and I want to win and I want to be the best. That’s my whole goal. But it’s great sometimes to get knocked down because you have to get back up. I love getting back up. I love the challenge.” However, worrying as the defeat was, of rather more concern are her prospects for the rest of the summer and, if there is no quick return to her best, what remains of her wonderful career. “I just feel like I don’t have to win another match,” she said. “I don’t have to win another tournament. Everything and every day is a bonus for me.
But she had also had enough of the media, and pleaded, “Can we just have one more question? I’m really frustrated. My first few months [since going out early at the Australian Open] I don’t think has been great at all. I haven’t gotten past the fourth round of a grand slam this year. I have a couple words to describe it, but I think that would be really inappropriate so I’m going to leave it at that.” “Obviously I want to do the best and I want to win and I want to be the best. That’s my whole goal,” she said. “But it’s great sometimes to get knocked down because you have to get back up. I love getting back up. I love the challenge.”
When Serena is not in the mood to expand on her thinking, she is quick to let her inquisitors know. “Can we just have one more question?” she said. “I’m really frustrated. My first few months [since going out early at the Australian Open] I don’t think have been great at all. I haven’t gotten past the fourth round of a grand slam this year. I have a couple of words to describe it, but I think that would be really inappropriate so I’m going to leave it at that.”
And with that she was gone. She was not alone in her despond, though. Venus also tumbled out of the tournament, not long before Serena’s match, when she failed to build on a promising start against the talented young Slovak, Anna Schmiedlova, who beat her in the first match of the day, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Serena and Venus were due to meet in the next round. Instead, their last memory of the 2014 French Open is sharing a limousine off site – as they did here in 2008, and at Wimbledon in 2011. It is as well they are the best of friends.