US Open: Emotions Part Of Serena Williams' Preparation For 2019 Final

Serena Williams is back at the place that witnessed one of the most controversial moments of her illustrious career and women’s tennis after booking her place in the final of the 2019 US Open women’s singles final. Twelve months ago, she was in the same situation but it ended with the American having a meltdown, losing to Naomi Osaka in straight sets and calling chair umpire Carlos Ramos a thief, a liar and even a sexist.

The 23-time women’s singles Grand Slam champion received three on-court violations during the game and it required tournament officials to step in and take control of the situation. The partisan crowd on Arthur Ashe Arena booed the Japanese starlet during the greatest moment of her career after seeing one of their own wronged by the chair umpire, who according to many was only following the letter of the law.

The 2019 US Open final, like last year is Williams’ chance to equal Margaret Court’s all time Grand Slam record at 24 titles and become the first woman to achieve the feat in the Open Era. The American has looked dominant this time around but this is her fourth major final since returning to the game after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian in 2018 and she has come up short in her previous three attempts and is yet to win a title after her return.

Williams is arguably among the greatest ever players to play the game, she has dominated the women’s game for over a decade and was unshakable when it came to major tournaments. She won 21 of her first 25 Grand Slam finals but has since lost five of her last seven giving an impression of vulnerability when the stakes are high in recent years.

“There’s so many different emotions in finals,” Williams said softly on Thursday night after booking a place in the summit clash, as quoted on the New York Times. “It just brings out so many highs and lows, nerves and expectations — it’s a lot.”

Williams will take on teenager Bianca Andreescu in the final on Arthur Ashe Arena on Saturday night, the same opponent she conceded to in the final of the Rogers Cup last month. This time around she looks clinical and ready to equal the record but we said the same thing when she entered the final 12 months ago.

Andreescu maybe in her first major final but what she lacks in experience, she has shown that she makes up with fighting spirit after she came back from 5-2 down in the second set in her semifinals against Belinda Bencic to reel off five straight games and win 7-6, 7-5 to maintain her 23-match winning streak.

It may have been 12 months back but the controversy of the 2018 women’s singles final is still fresh in the memory of everyone who watched it unfold and there were questions about the on-court coaching violation, which started the whole fiasco. Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted to doing it, and revealed surprisingly that he would do it again, as it is a normal occurrence in tennis today.

However, Williams believes he was just messing with the media and made it clear that her coach is aware that he is not permitted to do any on-court coaching, stating: "Yeah, no, he knows better than to say that to me. I think he was just playing with you guys. That's not, like, an option for me."