Following a tough 7-5, 6-0 defeat at the hand’s of two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza, five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams tried to look forward and take the positives despite a disappointing defeat.
Not even an hour removed from a tough opportunity lost in a 7-5, 6-0 defeat to now two-time major winner Garbiñe Muguruza, 37-year-old Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam winner, was upset and disappointed in defeat, yet graceful in trying to take the positives from her incredible run here and look forward to the US hard court season.
Asked about the crucial turning point of the match in the opening set when Williams had two set points come and go at 5-4, the five-time Wimbledon champion said, “Yeah, definitely would have loved to have converted some of those points. But she competed really well. So credit to her. She just dug in there and managed to play better.”
Looking to find what was the difference between a high-quality, highly-competitive opening set and a letdown of a performance in the second set, the 37-year-old said, “Yeah, there’s errors, and you can’t make them. You can’t make them. I went for some big shots and they didn’t land. Probably have to make less errors.”
Williams continued to relay her credit to Muguruza, complementing the Spaniard’s incredible barrage of powerful, first-strike tennis to defeat the American the way Venus often likes to defeat her opponents. “She played really well. I mean, she played top tennis, so I have to give her credit for just playing a better match,” commented the tenth seed.
“I’ve had a great two weeks. I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer.”
Asked if there was something she could have done differently potentially to yield a different outcome, the always classy in defeat Williams said, “I mean, there’s always something to learn from matches that you win and the ones that you don’t win. So there’s definitely something for me to learn from this. But at the same time looking back, it’s always about looking forward, too.”
As she speaks about looking forward, the immediate attention turns to the US hard court season, a time of the year where the 37-year-old American, who will rise to number nine in the world come Monday, relishes playing on home soil. “Yeah, definitely that I’m in good form. I’ve been in a position a lot of times this year to contend for big titles. That’s the kind of position I want to keep putting myself in. It’s just about getting over the line. I believe I can do that,” commented a seemingly hungry seven-time major winner and two-time US Open champion.
That hunger from within and fire in the belly continued to show for Williams, as she spoke very bluntly about her aspirations to go further than just finals in 2017, having already finished runner-up at the Australian Open and now here at Wimbledon. “Like I said, this is where you want to be. I like to win. I don’t want to just get to a final. It’s just about playing a little better,” concluded the 37-year-old former world number one.
Taking a moment to look back as well at what has been an excellent fortnight for the American tenth seed, the five-time Wimbledon winner described her experience here as, “Yeah, every tournament is different. Every tournament’s different. This is most certainly a very different tournament. It took a lot of effort and what have you to get right here today. So this is where I want to be every single major.”
Asked about her thoughts on being 37 and still playing some of the best tennis of her career despite Sjogren’s syndrome and other roadblocks in her career, Williams said, “I believe that those are not my thoughts or words, that I’m not supposed to be doing this. I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing right now.”
Despite the disappointing loss for Williams, the future looks bright for the American as she moves into another highly successful part of the season for her, the American hard court swing. The seven-time Grand Slam winner and two-time US Open champion will presumably next play at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, before the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, all leading up to the final major of the season in New York, the US Open.
