Serena Williams pushed aside concerns about her fitness on Saturday and declared herself to be “at 130 per cent” for her Australian Open title defence.
The 21-times grand slam singles champion has played almost no competitive tennis since the US Open last September and pulled out of the Hopman Cup two weeks ago with knee inflammation.
Pictures of the 34-year-old taking a time-out during training circulated on social media on Saturday, raising concerns she might not be fit to take on Camila Giorgi in the first round at Melbourne Park on Monday or Tuesday.
Williams, though, said the knee inflammation was no longer a problem — “it’s actually really fine” — and any issues she had on the practice courts were simply the result of her heavy training workload.
“I’m a little tired today. I’ve been working so hard and doing so much work, so … maybe I had a bad attitude out there,” the world number one and top seed told reporters.
“I’m at 120, 130 per cent right now … I actually wanted to have an easy day today. But to me in my mind ‘easy’ is just two hours of really intense working out.”
Williams said she would be relying on her vast experience to make up for her lack of time on court ahead of her 16th Australian Open, six of which she has won.
“I didn’t have the match play that I’ve wanted to have,” she said. “But after playing for so many years on tour, I should be able to focus on that and the fact that I have played a lot of matches.”
A shock defeat to Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the semi-finals of last year’s US Open denied Williams the chance of a single season grand slam after she had won the Australian and French Opens as well as Wimbledon.
Williams said she was neither prepared to discuss that missed chance nor would she contemplate her chances of achieving the rare feat this year.
“I don’t think about it, I never thought about it really,” she said. “It was in front of me last year but it still wasn’t there, so …”
Williams also brushed off any thoughts that she might be suffering more from nerves this year because of her lack of on-court action over the last four months.
“I don’t have anything to prove,” she said. “I have nothing to lose. I can only gain. That’s kind of how I look at it right now.”
Williams confirmed she plans to play doubles at the Olympics in Rio this year and is even mulling the mixed event if she can find a partner.
Williams and sister Venus have an enviable record for the United States at the Olympics, claiming the women’s doubles gold in 2000, 2008 and 2012.
Serena is also the current Olympic singles champion and is keen for more glory.
“We definitely want to play doubles there,” she said ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne. “So we’re going to play some tournaments later in the year, get our doubles game back, see how it goes.”
Asked if she would consider playing mixed doubles as well in Rio, she replied: “I would love to. I don’t know, though. That’s a lot of matches. We’ll see.”
“I play well with John (Isner). I didn’t get to play with Jack (Sock). Yeah, anyone with a big serve, where I can just stand at the net and look good, that’s all I need to do,” she added
