Serena Williams has revealed that one loss in her career still haunts her years later and with a glittering career behind her as a tennis legend.
Williams confessed that her 2015 US Open loss to Roberta Vinci is something that has stayed with her.
She says that the more you win in the sport the harder it is to lose especially on the big stage.
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Williams admitted that she felt deflated after losing to Vinci in 2015, claiming she never got over the loss.
“No matter how much I feel like it could and it should.. no matter what I could’ve done different, it wasn’t my story,” Williams said.
“Winning is so glamorous. Everyone thinks it’s so amazing when you win. And it is. It really is. But the more you win, the harder it is to lose. I don’t think I was able to move on from that US Open loss. I was just so angry and just so sad and disappointed in myself… said no one with 21 Grand Slams (at the time). But it wasn’t enough for me.”
Williams has taken the time to tell the story of her career from her own perspective in the docuseries In the Arena.
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“I’ve never really been able to dive into the intimate moments, because tennis is so intense, and I was so intense and so focused and not really thinking about a deeper story. I was just thinking about … winning,” Williams told Harper’s Bazaar.
“I never really went down memory lane; I always felt like I wanted to stay focused and continue to do the task at hand. So it was nice to take a deep breath and then tell a story that has never been told before.”
Williams hopes that the series builds on the success of King Richard, the biopic that she credits with helping her family correct the narrative surrounding her father who coached Serena and Venus early in their careers.
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“Sometimes, so many people are just telling a different story or seeing a visual of you being intense on the court and making that who you are,” said Williams.
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“What I loved about King Richard is, we were able to finally tell the truth about my dad and [show that] people created this narrative that was completely untrue.
“It’s hard because when you are a person of color, you’re expected to—you have to—win so many times more than someone else. To be honest, as a Black woman, we are basically starting at the bottom. You don’t get paid as much. You don’t get as many opportunities.
“And no matter what you do, it’s always, ‘Oh, she’s mean,’ or ‘Oh, she’s this,’ and none of that is necessarily true. So it’s [about] breaking down those false narratives and also being okay with being yourself and letting people see that. I think it’s something that we have to talk about and embrace more: ‘These barriers also have to be broken down.’ And I’m okay to do that too.”
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