Ligaments in her left thumb sprained, Serena Williams barely could whip a backhand at Wimbledon when she played Justine Henin and lost in the quarterfinals.
Now she will play Henin again in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, her thumb healed, her mammoth serve rounding into ferocious form after yesterday’s 6-3, 6-4 pounding of Marion Bartoli in the Round of 16.
“I’m definitely better than I was in my first match,” Serena said. “Each match I feel like I’ve gotten better.”
Williams was forced to take off six weeks after Wimbledon to heal, as she kept her thumb in a splint. Doctors called it a football injury – the kind free safeties often incur, not tennis warriors.
Ironically, Serena, headed up to USTA’s president box to sit with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell during Venus Williams’ battering of No. 5 seed Ana Ivanovic.
Without a prep match entering the Open, Serena is threatening to win her second Grand Slam of the year, with defending champion Maria Sharapova eliminated.
“At Wimbledon I couldn’t hit a backhand, so I’m very confident in the fact I’ll be able to do that,” Williams said. “I was really proud of myself to get that far because I had to take six weeks off, so I was thinking how in the world did I even play.”
Serena said she felt slight discomfort entering the Open but it’s disappeared, as have her first four opponents, including the Frenchwoman Bartoli, who made the Wimbledon finals.
“I didn’t have any pain when I hit a backhand at all,” Serena said. “I think it went away right during the tournament or when the tournament started.”
Wearing a pink ball cap, Serena smacked 10 aces yesterday and had one double-fault.
“I almost couldn’t return it,” Bartoli said. “I mean, when it’s coming 125 miles-per-hour or something I don’t even see the ball coming up. I can’t see if it’s middle or wide serve, it’s coming so fast. When you play against somebody who serves like this, it’s really hard to win the match.”