Serena Williams Should Not Miss Warm-up Events on Grass, Says Rod Laver

The American tennis sensation, Serena Williams exited from the French Open 2019 in the third round after falling 6-2, 7-5 to her compatriot, Sofia Kenin. After her defeat in Paris, World Number 11 decides to skip the warm-up events of Wimbledon 2019. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou communicated that Serena Williams needs some time off the court to work upon her problems.

The Australian tennis legend, Rod Laver laid down his school of thought regarding Serena’s decision about the grass-court season. He perceives that the 23-time Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams should get back on the professional courts and play matches. She needs to work on the technical aspects of the game to reach the destination where she belongs.

“For me, she needs to be out on the grass and play matches,” Rod Laver said. “She seems she has got all the strokes which she seems to pull out for a month or two. But she is better off learning the pressure, learning to volley a bit better and just do not go for an ace all the time, but put first serve in 90 percent of the time. She does not have a plan with volleys, that’s what makes her get in trouble sometimes”.

He mentioned about the other WTA professionals on the circuit and they are playing some astute tennis. Players these days generally do not focus on slamming winners and aces, rather they execute some smart moves on the court and get hold of that particular point with ease.

“But generally, because she is so strong and ability wise move around she finds herself losing and the other girls are not hackers, they are brilliant and they do not try and hit a winner on the groundstrokes, maybe they are just gonna drop it short,” he added.

“You’ve got to get yourself back into the game again. And so, you know, I think it’s the way you play, if you compete for all the game, every match, every ball, every point. And I think that is the way I played,” Rod Laver continued.

This year in Melbourne Serena Williams dealt with an unfortunate loss in the quarters after she twisted her ankle during the match. And then she retired from all the three Masters events where she featured. At Roland-Garros, Serena Williams survived a wild roar in the opening round as she dropped her first set and later won eleven out of the next twelve games to proceed into the second round.

In a nutshell, over the past four months, Serena Williams did not have enough match practice and exposure on the professional circuit. With an objective to achieve a certain threshold of dexterity, attain success on the WTA circuit and battle with the new generation of tennis players Serena Williams has to show up on the professional tennis courts as much as possible.