While acknowledging in the wake of Li Na’s retirement that players’ bodies can betray them, world number one Serena Williams has said that playing less tennis has helped extend her glittering career.
The American tennis ace was speaking as she prepared to compete in China’s Wuhan Open, a WTA premier-ranked event which will hold its final on Saturday, the day after her 33rd birthday.
China’s Li Na announced her retirement last Friday at the age of 32, citing chronic knee injuries, just months after she won her second Grand Slam, Sport24 reported.
Williams and her sister Venus opted in the past few years to play less, a decision once bitterly criticised by pundits as disrespectful of the game. But the American celebrated her 18th Grand Slam victory at the US Open earlier this month and shows no signs of losing her status as the world’s greatest female player.
Williams said that as for playing less, she thinks throughout her career that it’s definitely been able to help her have a longer career, adding that she thinks next year something she definitely wants to continue to do is really focus on breaking records in the slams and doing the best she can in those events and the ones leading up to those.
Williams said that she spent little time practising before the 2.4 million dollars Wuhan tournament, but was ready.
But following the retirement of China’s tennis ace, Williams acknowledged that all top athletes are at risk when pushing their bodies to the limit. She said that at one point or another all of their bodies at some point betray them, before paying tribute to Na.
Williams said that for the most part, she thinks Na is great, adding that the Chinese tennis ace a star that is in the sky that always shines and it is always going to be there. (ANI)