Australian Open: Struggling Serena Williams insists 'I'm fine'

Afrer unflattering pictures emerge, Williams said she was simply “a little tired” after working so hard

Serena Williams (Getty)

You never know what to expect from Serena Williams. Nine years ago the American turned up here at the Australian Open looking seriously out of condition and ranked No 81 in the world, having not won a tournament for two years and having played only five tournaments in the preceding 16 months. A fortnight later she was crowned champion.

Yesterday you might have imagined the world No 1 would be raring to go as she looked ahead to this week’s tournament, where she will play her first competitive match for four months in search of a triumph that would see her equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record.

Instead, the 34-year-old American moped her way through her pre-tournament press conference, insisting that the knee which had caused her problems a week earlier was fully healed and that she never looked back on her 2015 campaign. Williams’s season finished last year with a semi-final loss to Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals, which ended her quest to become only the fourth woman in history to win a calendar-year Grand Slam of the sport’s major trophies.

Williams, who said in the aftermath of that defeat that she needed to rest because of a number of physical issues, has not completed a match since. Her return in the first week of the new season ended in pain when she retired hurt midway through her only appearance at the Hopman Cup in Perth. The previous week she had been given one of her regular six-monthly injections into her troublesome left knee, which subsequently became inflamed.

Asked about photographs which appeared to show her in physical difficulty during a practice session here, Williams said she was simply “a little tired” after working so hard. “Maybe I had a bad attitude out there,” she said.

The world No 1 insisted she was “actually really fine”, and added: “I don’t have any inflammation any more. It’s just that I needed some time to get over that little hump. I’ve been doing a lot of, lot of, lot of training leading up to this.”

At least Williams is in good company, as most of the top women have withdrawn from tournaments or retired from matches in the first two weeks of the season. The list of walking wounded here includes Simona Halep (ankle), Garbine Muguruza (foot), Maria Sharapova (arm), Petra Kvitova (illness), Agnieszka Radwanska (leg) and Angelique Kerber (illness), though all are set to play.

Williams has a difficult first-round match against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, who as the world No 35 is the highest- ranked opponent she could have faced. When questioned about her draw, Williams snarled back: “I don’t really ever look at the draw, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention it. Thank you.”

When asked what would constitute a good tournament for her, the American was equally taciturn. “We all know the answer to that so no need to even say it,” she said.

Throughout last summer Williams insisted – less than convincingly – that pursuing a historic Grand Slam was not on her mind. Did she feel capable of reaching that goal this year? “I don’t really think about it,” she said. “I just think about each tournament as it comes, each player as it comes.” Needless to say, she had no thoughts on what had happened to her last year. “I don’t look back,” she said.

At least Williams’s sense of humour did not desert her completely. One questioner wanted to know about the outfit she would be wearing next week. “Hence the extreme training for the last three months,” Williams laughed. “It’s been like, ‘Got to be able to fit into that without being embarrassed’. ”