LONDON - Nothing drives Serena Williams the way disappointment does.
“It’s the biggest factor for me. Like, if I lose, all hell breaks loose, literally. Literally! I go home, I practice harder, I do more,” she said. “I don’t like to lose. … I hate losing more than I love winning. It could be a game of cards - I don’t like it. I really don’t like it.”
Well, the way Williams has been playing tennis lately, there’s been very little not to like. When Wimbledon starts Monday, she will be an overwhelming favorite to win her sixth title at the All England Club and second in a row. Williams enters the grass-court Grand Slam tournament 43-2 in 2013 and on a 31-match winning streak, the longest on the women’s tour in a single season in 13 years.
“It happens in sports: You’re going to lose. I learned that you’re not going to win all of them. And there have been a few matches that I wasn’t disappointed in,” said Williams, who at 31 is the oldest player to be ranked No. 1 in WTA history.
“But there were some that I was disappointed in,” she added, “and it’s actually helped me to get better.”
Case in point: A little more than a year ago, Williams arrived at the French Open unbeaten for the season on red clay and anticipating a charge at the title. Instead, she lost in the first round, the only opening-match exit from a major tournament in her career.
“It really was a shock for her. She really worked on rebuilding herself to become perhaps stronger than ever,” said Patrick Mouratoglou, the French coach who began collaborating with Williams shortly after that defeat.
“The more you eat, the hungrier you get,” Mouratoglou said. “When you win, when you achieve the exceptional, you don’t want it to stop.”
Since that dark day at Roland Garros, Williams is 74-3, including trophies at three of the past four Slams and the WTA Championships, plus gold at the London Olympics.
That run of nearly uninterrupted success began 12 months ago at Wimbledon, and most recently resulted in her first French Open championship in 11 years. Given the way Williams’ best-in the-game serve and generally dangerous strokes only get better on the slick grass, it’s difficult to pick against her during the fortnight.
There are four men, meanwhile, who all have real reason to like their chances, a quartet that’s combined to collect 32 of the past 33 Grand Slam tournaments: defending champion Roger Federer, owner of a record 17 Grand Slam titles, including seven at Wimbledon; No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, who won Wimbledon in 2011; two-time champion Rafael Nadal, whose record eighth French Open trophy this month raised his career haul to 12 major titles; and Andy Murray, the runner-up last year at the All England Club and reigning U.S. Open champion who wants to give Britain its first male title winner at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.
But Williams stands alone atop the women’s game at the moment.
Her serve, which she can consistently hit at more than 120 mph (190 kph), is clearly unrivaled, and she leads the tour this season in aces, service games won, break points saved and first serve points won. Her return is terrific, too, and Williams leads the way in first serve return points won, while ranking second in return games won.
“I don’t see a weakness,” three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe said. “She’s playing the best tennis of her career. She’s not only in the best place I’ve ever seen, I think she’s the best player that’s ever lived. I said that a while ago, but she’s cementing it in everyone’s mind. She’s just a level above anyone. There’s no doubt about it.”
At a glance
A look at Wimbledon, the year’s third Grand Slam tennis tournament
SURFACE Grass courts.
SITE The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
SCHEDULE Play begins Monday. The women’s singles final is July 6; the men’s singles final is July 7. There are no matches scheduled for the two-week tournament’s middle Sunday, June 30.
2012 MEN’S SINGLES CHAMPION Roger Federer of Switzerland.
2012 WOMEN’S SINGLES CHAMPION Serena Williams of the United States.
LAST YEAR Federer won his record-extending 17th Grand Slam title, and seventh at Wimbledon, by beating Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in the first singles final played with Centre Court’s retractable roof closed. Murray was the first British man since Bunny Austin in 1938 to reach the championship match at Wimbledon. Williams beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 for her fifth Wimbledon title, beginning a run in which she’s gone 74-3 and collected three of the past four major championships.
KEY STATISTIC 31 — Consecutive matches won by Williams, the longest single-season streak in women’s tennis since 2000.
PRIZE MONEY Total is 22.6 million pounds (about $35.5 million), with 1.6 million (about $2.5 million) each to the men’s and women’s singles champions. Those are increases of about 40 percent from 2012.
ONLINE http//www.wimbledon.org
Sports, Pages 26 on 06/23/2013