Former American tennis star Pam Shriver thinks Serena Williams still hasn’t given up on her hopes of winning a 24th Grand Slam title and that’s one of the reasons why she has decided to play Wimbledon. Less than two weeks before the start of Wimbledon, Williams revealed her plans to compete at The Championships this year.
Williams hasn’t played a singles match since retiring her Wimbledon first round match 12 months ago. Williams is a 23-time Grand Slam champion but still trails Margaret Court by one Grand Slam victory. “When I woke up and found out that she was competing at Wimbledon, I thought ‘great!’.
– I didn’t think it would happen. There were no signs of it on social media, and it caught me off guard. The ranking points don’t matter, she wants to figure out if there’s still a way to win that 24th Grand Slam, and grass is her best opportunity,” Shriver told Pickswise.
Evert on Williams’ return
No one really knew what would be Williams’ next move until she announced her plans to compete at Wimbledon. One of the theories was that Williams was waiting for the US Open and to retire there with Venus Williams, who also hasn’t played since August.
“It’s definitely something that will be mentioned- the rumours around the press circulated when Nadal won at Roland Garros last month. I think the hamstring injury at Wimbledon last year motivated her to come back this time, not being able to finish on Centre Court.
Maybe that played on her mind; she didn’t want that to be the last vision of her playing major tennis on what is probably her favorite court in the world,” Shriver explained. “It could have been endorsement-related, maybe the sponsors said 12 months or more injured meant that she was theoretically retired? Maybe her coach Patrick Mouratoglou teaming up with Simona Halep meant that she thought “OK then!””
