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It's all in the head: Serena
A steely resolve and a growing self-belief make her the best contender for this year's Wimbledon title.
A steely resolve and a growing self-belief make her the best contender for this year's Wimbledon title, Serena Williams warned on Thursday.
Severly restricted by a fracture in her left ankle, Williams advanced to the third round with a less than convincing 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Italian qualifier Mara Santangelo on centre court.
But she insisted that physical fitness apart, she was tough enough mentally to overcome the pain and her poor preparation for the tournament.
"I'm not in the best shape I would prefer to be in, and as I have been in the past, but I think tennis is 60-70 per cent mental," she said.
"I'm here to stay and I think I have the best chance out of the people left in the draw.
"I think I'm probably the most mentally tough person out there. I feel I have nothing to lose and only things to gain and I want to win this title really bad."
After two tough, three-set encounters at the All England club, Williams admitted she still had to make a lot of improvements in her game.
But the 23-year-old insisted she could play through the pain in the ankle that kept her out of the French Open and limited her Wimbledon preparations to a few hit-outs in the practice courts last week.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to come (to Wimbledon) at first. I was like 'oh, I'm not sure if I'm going to go but let me just try another practice day or whatever'," she said.
"Every day I was like that until my flight came along on Tuesday and I was like 'I guess I'm going to Wimbledon'. And I came and practiced more than I had for weeks, so that was kind of encouraging.
"I have been playing tennis for 19 years now and I figure if I can't do it now, I'm never going to be able to play tennis."
Her sister Venus also endured a tough second-round encounter, needing almost two hours to down spirited Australian veteran Nicole Pratt 7-5, 6-3.
Asked whether it was surprising to her that the sisters might be meeting so early in a tournament they had dominated so completely in recent years - last year was the first time since 1999 that a non-Williams won the championship - Venus was philosophical.
"It is what it is," she said. "Nothing more."
Typically, Venus said she had not even thought about the meeting.
"I'm just playing one match at a time here because that's all I can do," she said.
"If you're thinking about 'oh, fourth round, oh, quarter-finals, oh, I really want to win' you can't really win until you win the last match. So, for me, it's like 'ok, great, third round'."
She did assert however, that she felt her best tennis was ahead of her, hinting at a revival of the Williams dynasty which has looked to have been on the decline in recent times through injury and their interests outside the sport.
