In the Arena: Serena Williams (2024) s01e05 Episode Script
The Perfect Storm
1
[wind blowing]
[Serena] No matter
how strong you are
and no matter
how good you're playing,
even if you're dominating,
there's always a weakness.
The day you don't see a weakness
is the day you stumble.
So whether it was my serve
or my return
or definitely my volley,
there's always room
for improvement.
-[thunder rumbles]
-For me, I always tried to keep
a humble attitude in tennis
and understand that on any day,
it could change.
So, you don't wanna lose focus
against anyone.
That's when you lose your footing,
and then you become
super vulnerable
because you are almost too haughty.
[thunder crashing]
I put a lot of pressure on myself.
Anything less than a win
was a catastrophic failure.
[thunder continues crashing]
I convinced myself that
that's what the world expected,
was for me to win.
-[thunder continues crashing]
-And I expected the same thing.
[thunder continues crashing]
-[thunder rumbles
-[rain falling]
A health scare for the former
top women's tennis player in the world.
She's on a grandmotherly age
of 30 years old
in women's tennis.
She's looking at
her own mortality in tennis.
[reporter] It has been almost
one full calendar year
since she played an official match.
[commentator 1]
I think it's a harder game
to play now for her.
I don't think she can do it.
[commentator 2]
Serena Williams, her first match
of the tournament taking on
Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.
Razzano comes in
ranked 111 in the world.
[Serena] I hated
playing first round matches
'cause I think my hardest match
in every Grand Slam
that I've ever played
is always mentally
the first round for me.
'Cause I never lost
in the first round.
[commentator] 46-0 in Grand Slam
first round matches,
Serena Williams.
[Serena] Not only do I have
the pressure
that I've put on myself,
I have to play with the pressure of,
"Oh, Serena, what is she doing today?
What is she gonna wear?
What is she gonna
How is she gonna play?
She's gonna win.
What is the score?"
Like, it's a lot of pressure,
and I do love the pressure.
I love that because I'd rather
have it that way than not.
But it does take its toll,
and it does get heavy.
[grunts]
And so you have to figure out
a way to make it light,
and usually I do.
I just hadn't made it light
in that particular tournament.
[commentator]
Razzano gaining momentum,
and it's all going her way
right now.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Serena] I put so much pressure
on myself
to win another French Open
[umpire shouts indistinctly]
[Serena] because I'd only won
one French Open,
and I felt like this was
the year I could do it.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] I think
everybody is just waiting
for Serena to somehow
flip the switch
and buckle in,
and it's not happening.
[Serena] It's okay
to be hard on yourself,
but I was too hard on myself.
Everything was going wrong.
I was complaining about everything.
If I missed a shot,
it was the end of the world.
I needed to just take a beat
and say "It's not the end of the world.
You have the next point."
-[crowd cheering]
-But that's just excuses.
[commentator] Questions the call.
[Serena] I should have played better,
and I lost.
[commentator] A shocker
at the French Open!
For the first time in her career,
Serena Williams loses
in the first round
at a Grand Slam.
[Serena] I was so upset that I lost.
[reporter] She's getting on in years.
She knows her time is limited.
She had worked hard
to get back in shape
to win majors again.
It really looked
as though the table was set,
but, boy, this defeat
has really gotta sting.
[announcer] Serena Williams.
[reporter] Similar to Roger Federer,
we're just not used to seeing them
not win Grand Slams.
And for Roger Federer,
it's been two and a half years.
For Serena, it's been two years
since this tournament.
[commentator] And there he is.
For the first time, Novak Djokovic
I think with anybody who played
your sport, you have a bond.
but even more so
with somebody like Serena.
We go way back.
Played on the same courts.
We won the same tournaments.
You felt the same amount of pressure.
It's 15 years seeing each other,
waiting for each other,
for me to finish my match,
so she could play hers
or vice versa.
So, I mean, I've spent
hours and hours
watching Serena play, of course,
and admiring
what she's done as well.
[Serena] My career was weirdly parallel
with Roger Federer.
He and I, we're the same age,
and I always looked up
to Roger in a way.
He always knew how to handle
every single situation,
and he always knew how to win.
I would study his game,
and I would say,
"How do I hit the ball early?
How do I move like that?
How do I have that footwork
like Roger Federer?"
Like, I wanna study him
because he is the best.
And there's
a million questions
that I would have for Serena,
and she would have for me.
How did you deal with that loss
or with that injury?
When you are at the top,
and especially at the top
for so long,
and then you don't win
one or two Slams,
people are, like,
"What's going on?" You know?
And that now
you're over 30 anyway.
Like, how much longer
can you play?
You've achieved everything,
you're done,
and when are you gonna retire?
[Serena] I was so afraid
to reach 30.
-[clock ticking]
-I was, like, oh, my goodness.
My career is gonna be over.
Because I never thought
I would play past 30.
I think this was a time
in particular
where people had totally
counted myself out
and counted Roger out
and thinking that
we're both 30 or turning 30,
and that was the end of our careers,
and that was that.
But I just felt like
we both had more to give,
and I really felt
this weird unspoken connection
to Roger that I can't explain.
I always felt if Roger
could do it, I could do it.
[Federer] Every player needs
to adjust as they get older
because the passion
becomes different.
You adjust your training sessions
with who you train,
where you train, what time you train,
which tournaments to play,
because you realize now
that you've been on tour
for let's say 10, 15 years,
but everything changes.
[Serena] I asked
a good friend of mine on tour,
"Is there a place I can train?"
At the time,
French Open and Wimbledon
were two weeks apart.
After losing,
I didn't wanna leave Paris.
I should have still been
in the tournament in my mind.
I'm not gonna just sit here
[chuckles] and watch other people win.
I need to be training
for Wimbledon.
I don't want a lot of people.
I just need to be
in a quiet place
where I can just go away
and just train.
And so he recommended,
at the time,
his coach's facility.
I guess the guy
who owned the academy,
his name was Patrick.
My name is Patrick Mouratoglou.
I'm a professional tennis coach,
and I also own a tennis academy
that I started in 1996.
Since I'm a kid,
my dream was to be
a tennis champion,
and I couldn't do it for many reasons.
When I started coaching,
everybody started to laugh,
and they told me, "But you don't know
anything about coaching.
You never gave a tennis lesson
in your life," and I was 33.
And I said to them,
"You are right. That's true.
But I learn fast."
I don't know why,
but I knew I would coach Serena.
It was 10 years before.
She was maybe
She was 20 years old.
I was watching her play,
and I was thinking for sure
I'm gonna coach her. For sure.
But to be able to do it,
I have to be the best.
I envisioned the way it will happen,
and I saw her step in my academy.
I saw us talking. I really saw it.
So, that's incredible
because it happened.
[Serena] It was 30 minutes
outside Paris.
I was, like, okay.
It's a little far, but I'll go.
So, I texted him, and I was
like, "Can I hit at the court?"
And he was, like, "Sure."
Of course, I didn't know
anything about Patrick.
And he was super excited
that I came to the academy.
He gave me someone to hit with.
And she started to play,
and she hit the ball
for 45 minutes in a row
without stopping.
Then she stopped
and she said, "Talk to me."
So, I said, "Listen,
I know, you know, you're
I know my dad is
obviously my coach,
but if you want, if you have
anything you wanna say,
like if you see something
that you think I can do better,
feel free to tell me."
'Cause I love hearing
I don't wanna hear anything
I'm doing good.
I just wanna hear what I'm doing bad
so I can improve it.
I said to her that
I watched a match, and now
I'm watching her practice,
and I see the same mistakes.
And I see the reason why
she's missing,
and I explained to her.
So, she listened.
She's a very good listener.
Unbelievable listener.
And then she said,
"Okay. Can we work on it?"
I said, "Sure."
And I know
I have one shot with Serena.
She's not gonna ask me two times
what I think about her game.
I knew exactly what to say.
[Serena] I wasn't looking
for a coach.
I was happy in my situation.
But the feedback he gave me
was very similar
to what my dad would say,
and I
Not many people coach like my dad.
I think my dad is a great coach,
and he's the most underrated coach.
And I was, like,
"You're speaking my language.
We should continue
to, like, kind of
speak my language for the next
10 days while I'm here,"
and that's what we did.
She said, "Incredible.
It sounds like my father."
Of course it did.
I knew what I was doing.
I knew everything about her,
everything.
Believe me, I read the book,
I read thousands of articles.
I've watched
hundreds of matches,
and I think I see through people
more than anyone.
So, I knew her.
She didn't know me,
but I knew her.
I ended up asking him if
he wanted to come to Wimbledon.
[reporter] A very good morning
and a very warm welcome.
It is Wimbledon 2012.
[Mouratoglou] Serena loves
to intimidate people.
She loves it.
And she was trying
to intimidate me that day.
It was the first day of practice
in Wimbledon.
I'm waiting on the court
for the practice.
She enters the court.
I say, "Good morning,"
and she passes like this.
Zero emotion on her face.
She doesn't even look at me.
She passes here.
If I let her do that first day,
I'm done, and I know it.
She has a cap,
and I hit the cap really hard.
Not her head,
but just this part of the cap,
I hit it, and so hard
that the cap goes like this
on her face, and she's shocked.
I'm sure that nobody ever
did this to Serena, no one,
and especially not a guy
who knows her for a few days.
I tell her,
"This is not gonna work like that
because I have a few rules
that you'll have to respect.
Number one, when you enter
the court in the morning,
you look at me,
and you say, 'Good morning.'
Rule number two,
when I speak to you,
you stop, you look at me,
and you listen to me,
and you answer me."
And she said [chuckles]
and she said,
"And rule number three?"
And I forgot
the rule number three,
so I looked like shit,
so I said [chuckles]
"Rule number three,
I don't remember.
Maybe we'll come back."
[laughs]
And she told me afterwards,
she said, "When you did that,
that was different from anyone else."
It was always good for me
to get a new perspective,
because at the time,
it was just my dad.
[Mouratoglou] She never had
a coach before me,
only her father all her life
from the first day she
She took a tennis racket until that day,
and she was 30 years old.
I liked how Patrick coached.
Like, he wasn't
the kind of coach that was
always, like, as you hit a ball,
they're saying something.
I'm, like,
I've always liked someone
that was very calm and just
say what you need to say
and let me fix it.
[reporter] I thought, honestly,
she was a shoo-in
at Roland-Garros,
and then that match
against Virginie Razzano.
[Serena] Going into Wimbledon,
I just hope I don't make a fool
of myself at this point.
'Cause I just lost
in the first round
of the French Open,
and here I just wanna do well.
-[squeals]
-[crowd gasps]
[commentator] Thirty years of age now
world-ranking at six,
but, of course,
number one in the world
10 years ago now.
[crowd cheering]
[Mouratoglou] She was playing
really poorly.
Her level was so low
-[yells]
-[crowd gasps]
[Mouratoglou]
because she was so nervous.
But she was winning.
She was finding a way.
[Serena] Come on!
[Mouratoglou] But I knew that
if she would continue to play like this,
she would have no chance.
Because round of 16,
she was playing a very good player,
much better than all the others
she played before.
So, she had to show up.
[Serena] Patrick had
a good conversation with me,
and it was the first time
that he was very, like, hard.
And he said, "I need Serena
I haven't seen
Serena Williams yet.
I have not seen her.
I've heard about her.
I've seen her sometimes on TV.
I have personally never seen her.
I need her to show up today,
or you're not gonna win."
[Mouratoglou] I knew that
if I would provoke her,
we had a chance for her
to be able to show more of her.
And that's why I told her,
"We need Serena to show up today.
Otherwise, we go back home."
I said, "I'm gonna show you
Serena." [laughs]
[thunder booms]
[thunder crashes]
[Serena] And I showed him
and everybody else Serena
from the quarterfinals on.
[grunts]
[commentator] Serena is still
hunting Wimbledon titles.
[Serena] I remember thinking,
you know,
if you wanna be the best,
you have to watch the best.
[commentator] Semifinals day,
Federer vs. Djokovic.
[Serena] So, I would watch Roger,
and you're learning, like,
what are they doing?
'Cause how can I get better?
How do I move faster like these guys?
What are they doing
that I'm not doing?
And it's always good
to have friends
that can motivate you.
[Federer] At one point,
I felt like I was alone at the top.
Then there was Novak and Rafa
really coming into their own.
And I think that challenged me
to second-guess my playing style,
my work ethic,
how I should play the game.
Serena went through
exactly the same thing.
[crowd cheering]
[Serena] I remember I was, like,
okay, Roger's still in it.
I'm still in it.
Let's do this. Let's see what
Let's see what's gonna happen.
[reporter] Inside center court
for a competitive final.
[Serena] I had some hard matches
at Wimbledon that year.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
But I tell you, what I relied on
that Wimbledon was my serve.
For me, the perfect serve
is serving to the Ad-Out side.
[commentator] Beautiful serve.
[Serena] Obviously, it'll be an ace.
Then I serve up the T.
Just when you thought you had it,
it would curl away from you.
It would, like, turn.
And it's something that I worked on
a lot in my career
to get that last, like, hook.
[commentator 1] Best women's serve ever.
[commentator 2] Without a doubt.
She probably didn't even see it
That's how fast it was.
[Serena] You need the right toss.
You need to have the right knee bend.
Keep your head up
and pronate your wrist
and make sure you hit the ball
at the right point.
I never once thought of any of that.
Kind of just relax,
don't think about it, and just do.
[Federer] When I think of Serena,
right away the first thing
I think about
is perfect serve motion.
The ball toss is perfect.
The high elbow.
She's got the power,
she's got the kick.
Consistency.
[commentator 1] Wow.
[commentator 2] That was great.
[Federer] I don't know how much better
you can have a serve motion.
[commentator 1] And Serena
puts the pressure right on her.
Four for four.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
That's what allowed her
to wake up at 3:00 in the morning,
"Um, Serena, can you please
quickly hit an ace?"
"Yes, absolutely."
Bang, here it goes.
"Can I go back to sleep?"
That's kind of how it felt to me.
[commentator] Serena
is the Wimbledon champion.
[Mouratoglou]
When she won Wimbledon,
it was her 14th Grand Slam.
I felt like it was her first.
You have no idea
about the emotion she had
when she won that Grand Slam.
I mean, every time
she won a Grand Slam,
she had crazy emotion,
but this one
I think was probably
the most emotional.
Because she didn't win
a Grand Slam for two years.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
I've been asked,
"What did you feel?"
Because for me, it was
the first Grand Slam as a coach.
And I said, "Nothing.
I felt her emotion.
I felt the joy that she was feeling.
I was so much in her,
I felt what she felt.
I couldn't feel for myself.
[Serena] I was so happy.
I remember just saying over and over,
"I won Wimbledon."
Like, I couldn't believe it.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
I do remember my mom saying,
"When you get to be 30,
this is when you'll be
your strongest ever."
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Championship number seven
for Roger Federer,
the greatest of all time?
[Federer] We were able
to prove ourselves
and take the game again
to another level at now over 30,
to still show that we can still do it
and still hopefully do it
for a long time.
[Serena] The comeback
and win Wimbledon, it was a rebirth.
I needed to redo.
I needed to, like,
shed all my old skin,
and I needed to just put on new skin.
There needed to be a new Serena.
[commentator 1] The questions will begin
immediately for Serena.
"How many more can you win?"
Fourteen is great.
[commentator 2] Champions are greedy.
And so that created
a whole new animal.
[roaring]
[reporter] The winner
of this tournament,
of this match, will be the only player
to have won two Grand Slams
this year.
[yells]
[crowd cheering]
[yells indistinctly]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Mouratoglou] Confidence is something
that you build.
[roars]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
The only right way to think,
and that's my job,
is how, day after day,
you build confidence.
Come on!
[Mouratoglou]
So, I have to keep pushing her,
-and she again pushing me.
-[grunting]
[Mouratoglou] And when you have
this special chemistry
-[yelling]
-[Mouratoglou] it makes wonders.
-[roaring]
-[Serena] It was really
just about me focusing
on the smaller details.
He can bring things that
can make me more consistent.
It wasn't like he was
trying to change my game.
He was just trying to add to it.
It's definitely Serena 3.0.
Come on!
This is another version.
I'm actually playing better
than I have ever played,
-and I'm just winning.
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
And it was nice to just be able
to consistently show up.
[horn blows]
[reporter] And we are ready
for the women's championship
of the U.S. Open.
[Serena] By the time I made it
to the 2014 U.S. Open,
I was on top of the world.
[Mouratoglou] Fifteen minutes
before the match starts,
I turned to her, and she's like this.
[imitates snoring] She's sleeping.
And I can't believe that she's sleeping
fifteen minutes before entering
a Grand Slam final.
So, I wake her up and I say,
"You're not sleeping, are you?"
"Oh, yeah."
And I've never seen this in my life.
Players, before entering the court,
they are so stressed,
all of them without any exception.
It's impossible to sleep.
She was so calm this day
that she fell asleep.
It's crazy.
[Federer] She was always very relaxed,
and I always thought
that was so interesting
how we all played so different,
and I could not play like that.
[Mouratoglou] With Serena,
in December every year,
we had a long talk
about the goals for the season.
And my job is to find a way
for the player
to enter the courts
with the right intentions
and to take the fears away
as much as possible
so that the player can
express fully his potential.
But of course, for her, the goal
is to win all the tournaments.
[Serena] My goal in 2015
was to win a Calendar Grand Slam.
[Mouratoglou] A Calendar Slam
means winning
the four Grand Slams the same year
from January to September.
A Calendar Slam
is probably the most difficult thing
to do in tennis.
You cannot be at the top
four times in a season.
I mean, that's why
it doesn't happen.
[reporter] Steffi Graf,
the 19-year-old West German,
stepped into the sports
history books this week.
She became only the fifth person
to ever win the Grand Slam of tennis.
[Mouratoglou] But geniuses
can do it sometimes.
Very rarely.
-CREW: Camera roll.
-B206.
Take two. Go, sticks.
[Serena] Going into 2015,
I just came off
of winning the U.S. Open,
and I felt like
no one could beat me.
[Mouratoglou] Just winning
a Grand Slam is so difficult.
Not only you have to win
seven matches
during two weeks, but it's a journey.
It's two weeks.
Anything can happen during
those two weeks. Anything.
An injury. Being sick.
Uh, losing confidence after a match.
Playing the player you hate to play
that plays her best that day.
Anything can happen.
MAN: Go, Maria!
[Mouratoglou] And getting sick
during a tournament,
these things that happen,
and actually it happened
to Serena a few times.
[reporter] Oh, no. It now appears
Serena is having
all sorts of problems.
She has gone into the tunnel
with an apparent coughing fit.
[Serena] I remember running,
throwing up,
and coming right back.
And I'm gonna tell you,
it only took a couple minutes,
two, three minutes, you know.
I don't take a lot of time
when I jump off a court.
[reporter] Serena is back on court now.
[Serena] I don't know what happened.
Maybe I ate something bad
before the match.
[reporter] Head coach
Patrick Mouratoglou
has a look of concern as well.
2015 Australian Open, she's sick and
sick, not sick, injured, not injured.
Any problem, she will deal with.
[umpire] Game, Williams.
[commentator] She doesn't appear
to be in great shape.
[Serena] You don't wanna be sick
in a Grand Slam.
It sucks.
It's rough.
[Federer] You had to go through
the same amount of practices
and figure it out.
You have to go through injuries
and mental downs
and fighting the demons,
and then fight your way
out of those holes.
[commentator] Championship point.
That's it.
[umpire] Game, set, match, Ms. Williams.
[commentator] Serena Williams
rules again.
Grand Slam title number 19.
[commentator 2] It's almost like
she turns on a switch
and gets to another level.
[Serena] Every year I win Australia,
everyone talks about a Calendar Slam.
[reporter] So, you've held
the Serena Slam,
but it wasn't a calendar year.
-Oh, my God.
-Come on. Come on.
I would love to get there,
but I have to get to 20 first.
I'm just happy with this title,
and I hope just to continue,
and that's it.
That's all I think about.
Let's just focus
on the next Grand Slam,
which was the French Open.
I started to feel sick
at the French Open
in the third round against Azarenka.
[grunting]
[Serena] Something was off.
I saw a step off,
a step slow, something.
[announcer speaks French]
[Serena] I ended up winning that match.
-[grunting]
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Serena Williams then wins
after two hours and three minutes.
[Serena] And then in the fourth round,
the round of 16,
I played Sloane Stephens,
and I was two steps off.
[commentator] She's not moving well.
She's a step or two too slow.
[commentator] That's in.
[umpire] Set and match,
Mademoiselle Williams.
[Serena] After that match,
and I got through it,
I just started to go downhill.
I just was starting to get sick,
and then I got really sick.
[coughs]
[reporter] All these long matches here,
can they get you battle-tested,
or are you worried
about running out of gas at this point?
I'm not worried
about running out of gas.
You know, I'm I'm 33.
I'm not gonna be playing
another 10 years,
so I better not run out of gas now.
I'm not gonna quit.
Why stop now?
I'm gonna keep going
as hard as I can until I'm out.
[yells]
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
-[thunder crashes]
[Serena] If that means I have
to go another nine sets,
then so be it.
But nothing's gonna make me
run out of gas.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Federer] She was sick, you know,
but you don't wanna tell anyone
because you don't want the
[chuckles] the draw to know
that you're not feeling well.
[coughs] Excusez-moi. Uh, je
[Federer] And then yet still
you're explaining yourself
to the media, how,
"No, everything's great.
I'm struggling a little bit
today with rhythm and stuff,"
but actually [chuckles]
you're having loads of pain.
I'm just gonna go home
and relax and [coughs]
Excuse me. I'm so sorry.
try to pull myself together,
and I just have to play well.
It doesn't matter who I play.
They're gonna come out swinging,
and, you know,
I have to be ready for that.
We got to the semifinals.
I'm on the sidelines
just sitting like this basically.
[commentator] You shouldn't be
out there if you look like that
[man in stands]
Let's go, Serena. Let's go!
[Serena] I was, like, I gotta lose.
Like, I can't go on like this.
Somehow I won,
and my fever was so high
at this point
I went to the locker room,
and I just broke.
[Mouratoglou] After every match,
she would come back to the locker room,
lay down on the floor,
and cry for one hour
because she was just out of herself.
She was exhausted.
I was just bawling. I was like,
I didn't wanna win that match.
Like, I just wanna go home.
I can't believe
I'm, you know, winning.
I just didn't
I just literally needed to go home.
And I'm shaking.
I have such a fever.
I remember Marion Bartoli
was there,
and she helped me
take off, like, my dress
'cause I couldn't get undressed.
Someone had to come, like,
take off my tape.
I-I physically was in a position
where I could not move.
How can you win a Grand Slam like this?
I don't know how it's possible.
It's just impossible.
You can't take a whole lot of
the medications that all of us
would take normally
for a cold and a flu
-No.
-because they could show up
on the doping scan.
So, the players have to make do
with the old-fashioned methods,
and she's not getting over it
nearly as quickly
as she would have liked,
that's for sure.
'Cause this thing has dragged o
now for more than a week.
[Serena] I guess you have to have
an approval
to get some sort of
non-performance-enhancing drug,
just something to suppress my cold.
[Mouratoglou] She was like anyone
going to the pharmacy
and taking regular medicine for flu,
which do nothing.
Like, if you take nothing,
it's the same.
The approval process,
they're off on weekends.
[laughs] And so you're, like, wait.
This is a joke, right?
No, like,
"No, we're off on the weekends,
so you can get an approval
on Monday."
"Well, the French Open final
is on Saturday,
and we need the approval
today on Friday
because she's not getting better."
So, I was going to the doctor,
and I say, "Can you
Do you have something stronger?
Because she cannot play tennis."
She has
We have to get rid of this flu.
Her temperature has to go down.
Uh, but because of the doping, no.
[coughs]
[Serena] I remember practicing,
and I'm coughing so hard
that I can't even hit a ball.
I just start coughing so much
that I'm starting to cry
'cause I can't breathe.
And, you know,
I have my lung issues already,
Patrick comes over,
and he's like, "Let's go.
You're not gonna practice right now."
We didn't do one practice.
She could not practice.
We didn't do one warmup
before the matches.
She couldn't warm up.
She was in bed.
I remember being at her apartment.
I'm sitting on the bed.
I feel her fever from
I'm one meter away from her.
She's so hot that I feel it.
[Serena] And I'm thinking,
like, why am I here?
Like, I need to just pull out
at this point.
Like I I don't [sighs]
I didn't have it in me
to pull out at a Grand Slam
right now at this point in my career.
I just couldn't pull the plug.
Maybe I should've,
but I couldn't.
I'm not looking
at the beginning of my career.
I don't have another 10 years
to play, you know?
It was, like, every Grand Slam counts.
The next day, I woke up,
and I was, like,
I gotta toughen this out.
I'm in the finals
of the French Open.
Let me toughen this out.
[reporter] Today's win
would mean she is going
for 20 Grand Slam titles,
a milestone reached
only by two players in history.
[announcer] Serena Williams!
[commentator] Ms. Williams
trying to keep alive
the potential for a Calendar Slam.
[Serena] My body was aching.
I remember just being exhausted.
I would describe it as
the infamous flu game
with Jordan.
[buzzer sounds]
The only difference is
it's just me out there.
There is no teammate.
You're on the line
for every single point.
Somehow I won the first set.
[commentator] Williams' mindset today
is just get this over and done with.
I remember just being exhausted.
[grunting]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[grunts]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Compounding
the pressure on Serena now.
[Mouratoglou] This is why
she's who she is.
[thunder rumbling]
When she sees herself losing
[thunder rumbles]
[yells]
then a rage is coming.
[thunder booms]
And this rage
she's using to play much better.
Come on! Come on!
[Serena] I remember being angry.
Not angry that she was playing good.
I was angry that
I hadn't closed out the match.
Come on!
-[yells]
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
And I was, like, okay, don't get mad.
Just play. [laughs]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Mouratoglou] And this rage
gave her the possibility
to start playing tennis,
even though she was
as sick as you can be.
[grunts]
-[umpire] Out!
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
[grunts]
-Come on!
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Serena] I can't quit
no matter how much
I want to sometimes,
no matter how much
I say I don't care.
[grunting]
I don't know if there's
something deeper in me
that just continues,
like, to move my body
without me moving it, you know.
Like an outer body experience.
I don't know.
Come on!
[commentator] Body language
has just risen through the roof
Is there another twist in the story?
All I know is, like,
I'm so glad that something
in me refused to give up.
I don't know what it was,
'cause I had given up. [chuckles]
But something in me
must have wanted to win.
[grunting]
And that's what I did.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer speaks indistinctly]
What she did in 2015 at
Roland-Garros, I'm gonna say it.
I think it's the greatest achievement
in sport ever.
[crowd cheering]
I've never seen something
like this in my life,
and I think it defines Serena.
When you see what she's capable of
during that tournament,
she makes things impossible
become possible.
That's why she's who she is.
[reporter] Aren't you tired?
I mean, how do you feel
right now physically,
let alone emotionally?
[Serena] I think I'm gonna faint
in 20 minutes.
I'm, like, trying to hold it up
but I don't think I'm doing so well.
So, um, but it's just
I don't know.
Twenty is pretty amazing to me.
Unfortunately, I'm thinking
about Wimbledon, so
-Already?
-I know, I know.
[reporter laughs] Already?
I know. It's bad, it's bad.
I know.
[Serena] After winning
the tournament, though,
all I could think about
was winning Wimbledon.
I didn't dream
in my wildest dreams
that I would have a chance
to do a second Serena Slam.
I had already done one,
and usually
you do one per career.
And here I am in my 30s,
and I had a good chance
of doing it again.
I had a lot of momentum
behind me.
[commentator] And finally, we begin
the ladies singles final of 2015.
[commentator] Take that.
We might just have a match here.
Oh, that was a match.
[grunts]
[commentator] Early signs
of nerves showing here.
Well, she played so good in that match.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[grunting]
[announcer] A little interference.
[Serena] That was a fun match.
In retrospect.
It was not fun during.
[grunts]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] That was utter disdain.
When I used to see,
I mean, Serena play,
I saw an unbelievable,
fierce competitor.
On top of it, more power
than anybody in the game.
And when she was dialed in
and really wanted to be the best,
I mean, she was easily the best,
you know,
and I think that was just
so mighty impressive.
[commentator] And she's done it.
[umpire] Game, set, match.
[commentator] Once again,
the queen of center court.
[Serena] It was amazing
to win four in a row again.
It's awesome.
It's really awesome.
[reporter] The Calendar Slam's in sight,
to be continued in New York.
[Serena] I honestly
wouldn't have thought
last year after winning the U.S. Open
I would win the Serena Slam at all.
I mean, I've been trying
to win four in a row
for 12 years.
And having all four trophies at home
is incredible.
Anyone on tour
would take four in a row
and be happy with it.
There's one person that wouldn't,
and that would be me.
[reporter] When did you first think
about New York,
and what was the feeling there,
looking ahead?
-Um
-Or do you not, maybe?
-Oh, come on.
-[all laughing]
Yeah, I was feeling really good
so maybe a little bit after that,
I started thinking about New York.
[chuckles]
[reporter] The Calendar Slam's in sight,
to be continued in New York.
[Serena] I'd won four Grand Slams
in a row again,
and I was going for
my fifth Grand Slam in a row.
And there was so much pressure.
Everything was Serena.
[reporter] The countdown at Arthur Ashe
for what feels like a Super Bowl event.
[Serena] The U.S. Open poster.
It was a Serena poster for that year.
And everything was about Serena,
so it was a lot of pressure.
And I didn't take it as a privilege.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[reporter] Serena Williams
seven matches away
from the Calendar Slam,
which no one has achieved
since Steffi Graf
back in 1988.
[grunts]
[umpire] Game, set, match,
Serena Williams.
[reporter] The Grand Slam dream
is still alive,
but what a fight.
[reporter] Face a familiar
opponent now in the semifinal,
that's Roberta Vinci.
What are the challenges in that matchup?
You know, she has nothing to lose.
I don't either,
so we're just gonna go out
and have a lot of fun.
She is at the table
for the greatest of all time.
There's nobody can touch her now.
You give her no chance
to lose this match?
I have her no chance.
How about you?
-No chance.
-[laughs] Okay.
[reporter] Serena right now
is an absolute force of nature.
The only thing that can stop her
is if she trips over
all the garbage
on the streets of New York
and twists her ankle.
[reporter] Roberta Vinci,
the 43rd woman in the world
against the number one,
Serena Williams.
[Mouratoglou]
The pressure is really high.
She's supposed to play that day,
and she's ready to win.
And I-I know her.
She was ready to win
-[thunder rumbling]
-and it rains.
[reporter] Day 11
at the U.S. Open a washout.
Players getting the word
that the semifinals
for the women
would be played on Friday.
[Mouratoglou] At that time,
there was no roof,
and she plays the day after.
And I will remember all my life.
I'm waiting for her
at the stadium
to go warm up before the match,
before the semifinal.
She steps out of the car.
I look at her, and I think "Fuck."
Excuse us. Excuse us.
She's not like yesterday.
Something in her mind was wrong
that wasn't there the day before,
the day she was supposed to play.
[Serena] I became a little unsure
of myself.
I began to doubt myself.
And doubt is the worst thing
that you can have in tennis.
When doubt creeps in,
your game isn't as tight
as it needs to be.
Well, I think physically,
the extra day helps everyone.
I think psychologically,
it gives her a lot more time
to think about
what she's playing for,
so it could add
a little bit more stress,
if that's even possible.
[reporter] Maybe Roberta Vinci
can be the one to derail
Serena Williams and history.
[announcer] Serena Williams.
[Mouratoglou] She can still win.
But if the girl
on the other side of the court
plays the match of her life,
we're really in the shit.
[grunting]
You don't win Grand Slams
with your tennis.
The tennis is the consequence
of who you are,
how you think,
how you process,
the mindset you have
when you enter the court.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
You win Grand Slams
with your heart.
[umpire] Game.
[commentator] Well, look good
at that face right there
from Serena of angst
and disgust and tension.
[Serena] It's not a great feeling
when you're not able
to make the right shot.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Tension's building.
[Serena] You can't show up
and be your best every day.
[grunts]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Mouratoglou] We should never forget
that players are humans,
humans who have doubts,
goals,
emotions,
and that plays a big part
in the success or not.
[commentator 1] And Vinci has taken
her level of play up a bit.
[commentator 2] She's maximizing
this opportunity,
this window
that's been given to her.
[commentator 1]
This is so much history
-in the sport at stake.
-[thunder rumbling]
[Serena] It was so overwhelming for me
because all the pressure
that I was starting to feel,
all the pressure
that I was putting on myself,
all the pressure that
I was feeling from just around,
I think started to add up.
[grunting]
[Mouratoglou] When you are
playing Grand Slams,
big matches, crazy emotions,
crazy stress, crazy pressure,
the only thing you can rely on
[Serena grunts]
is your confidence.
If it's not strong enough,
it's gonna be a meltdown.
[commentator] Serena giving her
absolute all
trying to chase that last one down.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Vinci, "What about me?"
[cheering continues]
I can't imagine the pressure
she's feeling now.
[commentator 2] Well, it's evident
that Serena's playing
two opponents right now,
playing Roberta on the other side,
and she's playing herself.
[Serena] The semifinal sucked,
and I hated it,
That's one thing my therapist tells me
not to talk about
[laughs] for my sanity.
-[yells]
-[shoes squeak on court]
[crowd gasps and cheers]
[commentator] An extraordinary upset.
Italy's Roberta Vinci
ends Serena Williams' Grand Slam run.
[Serena] I didn't play well.
I won the second set.
I should have won the match.
I should have won the tournament,
and I'll forever regret that.
[commentator] And Serena departs.
[crowd cheers]
[Mouratoglou] This loss killed her.
She said to me,
"I feel that I worked
for that moment all my life,
and I screwed up everything."
Can you imagine?
After winning
four Grand Slams in a row
and losing in the semifinal
of the fifth,
she's saying,
"I screwed up everything."
That's unbelievable.
I say that because
it says everything
about how she processes.
[commentator]
She put so much hard work
into trying to pull this off.
It just shows you how difficult it is.
[Serena] It was a really difficult time.
I feel like I could have won,
um, and I didn't.
And honestly, I feel like
I could have done
lot of things better
in that tournament.
Not only in the tournament,
but also, just, like,
prep for the tournament
and, like
You know how
you feel like, gosh,
if I'd have trained here
or if I'd have done that,
or if it hadn't rained
three days in a row or
What would have happened?
Like, it was so many
So much of that happening.
It was a very difficult pill
for me to swallow
because ultimately, I got outplayed.
It was just a perfect storm
for me to lose.
But inside,
I just wanted to just go home
and just scream into a pillow
as loud as I could.
That's all I'm gonna say
about that.
[Mouratoglou] She didn't win
the Calendar Slam,
but being able to help her
achieve history is incredible.
[man in distance] Love you, Serena!
[Mouratoglou]
There is only one Serena.
In the history of our game,
there will never be another one.
But what she's achieved shows it.
But when you know her,
you see her drive,
the results she's made,
her legacy
it's just a confirmation
that she's completely exceptional.
[Federer] It humbles you
a little bit, you know,
when you're not winning
all the time.
She entered the tour
with a huge bang,
and, like, "Here I am.
And I'm gonna be dominant.
I'm gonna be great."
So, I think for her then to navigate
and have such a long career,
is something
I truly admire about her.
[Serena] It doesn't end the way
it does in the movies,
and no matter how much I feel like
it could and it should,
and no matter what
I could have done different,
it wasn't my story.
[crowd cheering]
Winning is so glamorous,
you know,
and everyone thinks
it's so amazing when you win.
It is. It really is,
but the more you win,
the harder it is to lose.
I don't think I was able to move on
from that U.S. Open loss.
[thunder rumbling]
I was just so angry
and just so sad
and just so disappointed
in myself,
said no one with 21,
at the time, Grand Slams.
But it wasn't enough for me.
[crowd cheering]
Winning can sometimes be ugly.
You could be sick.
You could feel like
you're on top of the world,
and then one bad match,
and it's just over.
It's all over.
It's humbling.
Sport is humbling.
Because no matter who you are,
at some point you're gonna lose,
and it keeps you very humble.
Winning is not guaranteed.
No matter what you do,
no matter how much work you do,
it's not always guaranteed,
and that's something
I just had to learn.
[wind blowing]
[Serena] No matter
how strong you are
and no matter
how good you're playing,
even if you're dominating,
there's always a weakness.
The day you don't see a weakness
is the day you stumble.
So whether it was my serve
or my return
or definitely my volley,
there's always room
for improvement.
-[thunder rumbles]
-For me, I always tried to keep
a humble attitude in tennis
and understand that on any day,
it could change.
So, you don't wanna lose focus
against anyone.
That's when you lose your footing,
and then you become
super vulnerable
because you are almost too haughty.
[thunder crashing]
I put a lot of pressure on myself.
Anything less than a win
was a catastrophic failure.
[thunder continues crashing]
I convinced myself that
that's what the world expected,
was for me to win.
-[thunder continues crashing]
-And I expected the same thing.
[thunder continues crashing]
-[thunder rumbles
-[rain falling]
A health scare for the former
top women's tennis player in the world.
She's on a grandmotherly age
of 30 years old
in women's tennis.
She's looking at
her own mortality in tennis.
[reporter] It has been almost
one full calendar year
since she played an official match.
[commentator 1]
I think it's a harder game
to play now for her.
I don't think she can do it.
[commentator 2]
Serena Williams, her first match
of the tournament taking on
Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.
Razzano comes in
ranked 111 in the world.
[Serena] I hated
playing first round matches
'cause I think my hardest match
in every Grand Slam
that I've ever played
is always mentally
the first round for me.
'Cause I never lost
in the first round.
[commentator] 46-0 in Grand Slam
first round matches,
Serena Williams.
[Serena] Not only do I have
the pressure
that I've put on myself,
I have to play with the pressure of,
"Oh, Serena, what is she doing today?
What is she gonna wear?
What is she gonna
How is she gonna play?
She's gonna win.
What is the score?"
Like, it's a lot of pressure,
and I do love the pressure.
I love that because I'd rather
have it that way than not.
But it does take its toll,
and it does get heavy.
[grunts]
And so you have to figure out
a way to make it light,
and usually I do.
I just hadn't made it light
in that particular tournament.
[commentator]
Razzano gaining momentum,
and it's all going her way
right now.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Serena] I put so much pressure
on myself
to win another French Open
[umpire shouts indistinctly]
[Serena] because I'd only won
one French Open,
and I felt like this was
the year I could do it.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] I think
everybody is just waiting
for Serena to somehow
flip the switch
and buckle in,
and it's not happening.
[Serena] It's okay
to be hard on yourself,
but I was too hard on myself.
Everything was going wrong.
I was complaining about everything.
If I missed a shot,
it was the end of the world.
I needed to just take a beat
and say "It's not the end of the world.
You have the next point."
-[crowd cheering]
-But that's just excuses.
[commentator] Questions the call.
[Serena] I should have played better,
and I lost.
[commentator] A shocker
at the French Open!
For the first time in her career,
Serena Williams loses
in the first round
at a Grand Slam.
[Serena] I was so upset that I lost.
[reporter] She's getting on in years.
She knows her time is limited.
She had worked hard
to get back in shape
to win majors again.
It really looked
as though the table was set,
but, boy, this defeat
has really gotta sting.
[announcer] Serena Williams.
[reporter] Similar to Roger Federer,
we're just not used to seeing them
not win Grand Slams.
And for Roger Federer,
it's been two and a half years.
For Serena, it's been two years
since this tournament.
[commentator] And there he is.
For the first time, Novak Djokovic
I think with anybody who played
your sport, you have a bond.
but even more so
with somebody like Serena.
We go way back.
Played on the same courts.
We won the same tournaments.
You felt the same amount of pressure.
It's 15 years seeing each other,
waiting for each other,
for me to finish my match,
so she could play hers
or vice versa.
So, I mean, I've spent
hours and hours
watching Serena play, of course,
and admiring
what she's done as well.
[Serena] My career was weirdly parallel
with Roger Federer.
He and I, we're the same age,
and I always looked up
to Roger in a way.
He always knew how to handle
every single situation,
and he always knew how to win.
I would study his game,
and I would say,
"How do I hit the ball early?
How do I move like that?
How do I have that footwork
like Roger Federer?"
Like, I wanna study him
because he is the best.
And there's
a million questions
that I would have for Serena,
and she would have for me.
How did you deal with that loss
or with that injury?
When you are at the top,
and especially at the top
for so long,
and then you don't win
one or two Slams,
people are, like,
"What's going on?" You know?
And that now
you're over 30 anyway.
Like, how much longer
can you play?
You've achieved everything,
you're done,
and when are you gonna retire?
[Serena] I was so afraid
to reach 30.
-[clock ticking]
-I was, like, oh, my goodness.
My career is gonna be over.
Because I never thought
I would play past 30.
I think this was a time
in particular
where people had totally
counted myself out
and counted Roger out
and thinking that
we're both 30 or turning 30,
and that was the end of our careers,
and that was that.
But I just felt like
we both had more to give,
and I really felt
this weird unspoken connection
to Roger that I can't explain.
I always felt if Roger
could do it, I could do it.
[Federer] Every player needs
to adjust as they get older
because the passion
becomes different.
You adjust your training sessions
with who you train,
where you train, what time you train,
which tournaments to play,
because you realize now
that you've been on tour
for let's say 10, 15 years,
but everything changes.
[Serena] I asked
a good friend of mine on tour,
"Is there a place I can train?"
At the time,
French Open and Wimbledon
were two weeks apart.
After losing,
I didn't wanna leave Paris.
I should have still been
in the tournament in my mind.
I'm not gonna just sit here
[chuckles] and watch other people win.
I need to be training
for Wimbledon.
I don't want a lot of people.
I just need to be
in a quiet place
where I can just go away
and just train.
And so he recommended,
at the time,
his coach's facility.
I guess the guy
who owned the academy,
his name was Patrick.
My name is Patrick Mouratoglou.
I'm a professional tennis coach,
and I also own a tennis academy
that I started in 1996.
Since I'm a kid,
my dream was to be
a tennis champion,
and I couldn't do it for many reasons.
When I started coaching,
everybody started to laugh,
and they told me, "But you don't know
anything about coaching.
You never gave a tennis lesson
in your life," and I was 33.
And I said to them,
"You are right. That's true.
But I learn fast."
I don't know why,
but I knew I would coach Serena.
It was 10 years before.
She was maybe
She was 20 years old.
I was watching her play,
and I was thinking for sure
I'm gonna coach her. For sure.
But to be able to do it,
I have to be the best.
I envisioned the way it will happen,
and I saw her step in my academy.
I saw us talking. I really saw it.
So, that's incredible
because it happened.
[Serena] It was 30 minutes
outside Paris.
I was, like, okay.
It's a little far, but I'll go.
So, I texted him, and I was
like, "Can I hit at the court?"
And he was, like, "Sure."
Of course, I didn't know
anything about Patrick.
And he was super excited
that I came to the academy.
He gave me someone to hit with.
And she started to play,
and she hit the ball
for 45 minutes in a row
without stopping.
Then she stopped
and she said, "Talk to me."
So, I said, "Listen,
I know, you know, you're
I know my dad is
obviously my coach,
but if you want, if you have
anything you wanna say,
like if you see something
that you think I can do better,
feel free to tell me."
'Cause I love hearing
I don't wanna hear anything
I'm doing good.
I just wanna hear what I'm doing bad
so I can improve it.
I said to her that
I watched a match, and now
I'm watching her practice,
and I see the same mistakes.
And I see the reason why
she's missing,
and I explained to her.
So, she listened.
She's a very good listener.
Unbelievable listener.
And then she said,
"Okay. Can we work on it?"
I said, "Sure."
And I know
I have one shot with Serena.
She's not gonna ask me two times
what I think about her game.
I knew exactly what to say.
[Serena] I wasn't looking
for a coach.
I was happy in my situation.
But the feedback he gave me
was very similar
to what my dad would say,
and I
Not many people coach like my dad.
I think my dad is a great coach,
and he's the most underrated coach.
And I was, like,
"You're speaking my language.
We should continue
to, like, kind of
speak my language for the next
10 days while I'm here,"
and that's what we did.
She said, "Incredible.
It sounds like my father."
Of course it did.
I knew what I was doing.
I knew everything about her,
everything.
Believe me, I read the book,
I read thousands of articles.
I've watched
hundreds of matches,
and I think I see through people
more than anyone.
So, I knew her.
She didn't know me,
but I knew her.
I ended up asking him if
he wanted to come to Wimbledon.
[reporter] A very good morning
and a very warm welcome.
It is Wimbledon 2012.
[Mouratoglou] Serena loves
to intimidate people.
She loves it.
And she was trying
to intimidate me that day.
It was the first day of practice
in Wimbledon.
I'm waiting on the court
for the practice.
She enters the court.
I say, "Good morning,"
and she passes like this.
Zero emotion on her face.
She doesn't even look at me.
She passes here.
If I let her do that first day,
I'm done, and I know it.
She has a cap,
and I hit the cap really hard.
Not her head,
but just this part of the cap,
I hit it, and so hard
that the cap goes like this
on her face, and she's shocked.
I'm sure that nobody ever
did this to Serena, no one,
and especially not a guy
who knows her for a few days.
I tell her,
"This is not gonna work like that
because I have a few rules
that you'll have to respect.
Number one, when you enter
the court in the morning,
you look at me,
and you say, 'Good morning.'
Rule number two,
when I speak to you,
you stop, you look at me,
and you listen to me,
and you answer me."
And she said [chuckles]
and she said,
"And rule number three?"
And I forgot
the rule number three,
so I looked like shit,
so I said [chuckles]
"Rule number three,
I don't remember.
Maybe we'll come back."
[laughs]
And she told me afterwards,
she said, "When you did that,
that was different from anyone else."
It was always good for me
to get a new perspective,
because at the time,
it was just my dad.
[Mouratoglou] She never had
a coach before me,
only her father all her life
from the first day she
She took a tennis racket until that day,
and she was 30 years old.
I liked how Patrick coached.
Like, he wasn't
the kind of coach that was
always, like, as you hit a ball,
they're saying something.
I'm, like,
I've always liked someone
that was very calm and just
say what you need to say
and let me fix it.
[reporter] I thought, honestly,
she was a shoo-in
at Roland-Garros,
and then that match
against Virginie Razzano.
[Serena] Going into Wimbledon,
I just hope I don't make a fool
of myself at this point.
'Cause I just lost
in the first round
of the French Open,
and here I just wanna do well.
-[squeals]
-[crowd gasps]
[commentator] Thirty years of age now
world-ranking at six,
but, of course,
number one in the world
10 years ago now.
[crowd cheering]
[Mouratoglou] She was playing
really poorly.
Her level was so low
-[yells]
-[crowd gasps]
[Mouratoglou]
because she was so nervous.
But she was winning.
She was finding a way.
[Serena] Come on!
[Mouratoglou] But I knew that
if she would continue to play like this,
she would have no chance.
Because round of 16,
she was playing a very good player,
much better than all the others
she played before.
So, she had to show up.
[Serena] Patrick had
a good conversation with me,
and it was the first time
that he was very, like, hard.
And he said, "I need Serena
I haven't seen
Serena Williams yet.
I have not seen her.
I've heard about her.
I've seen her sometimes on TV.
I have personally never seen her.
I need her to show up today,
or you're not gonna win."
[Mouratoglou] I knew that
if I would provoke her,
we had a chance for her
to be able to show more of her.
And that's why I told her,
"We need Serena to show up today.
Otherwise, we go back home."
I said, "I'm gonna show you
Serena." [laughs]
[thunder booms]
[thunder crashes]
[Serena] And I showed him
and everybody else Serena
from the quarterfinals on.
[grunts]
[commentator] Serena is still
hunting Wimbledon titles.
[Serena] I remember thinking,
you know,
if you wanna be the best,
you have to watch the best.
[commentator] Semifinals day,
Federer vs. Djokovic.
[Serena] So, I would watch Roger,
and you're learning, like,
what are they doing?
'Cause how can I get better?
How do I move faster like these guys?
What are they doing
that I'm not doing?
And it's always good
to have friends
that can motivate you.
[Federer] At one point,
I felt like I was alone at the top.
Then there was Novak and Rafa
really coming into their own.
And I think that challenged me
to second-guess my playing style,
my work ethic,
how I should play the game.
Serena went through
exactly the same thing.
[crowd cheering]
[Serena] I remember I was, like,
okay, Roger's still in it.
I'm still in it.
Let's do this. Let's see what
Let's see what's gonna happen.
[reporter] Inside center court
for a competitive final.
[Serena] I had some hard matches
at Wimbledon that year.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
But I tell you, what I relied on
that Wimbledon was my serve.
For me, the perfect serve
is serving to the Ad-Out side.
[commentator] Beautiful serve.
[Serena] Obviously, it'll be an ace.
Then I serve up the T.
Just when you thought you had it,
it would curl away from you.
It would, like, turn.
And it's something that I worked on
a lot in my career
to get that last, like, hook.
[commentator 1] Best women's serve ever.
[commentator 2] Without a doubt.
She probably didn't even see it
That's how fast it was.
[Serena] You need the right toss.
You need to have the right knee bend.
Keep your head up
and pronate your wrist
and make sure you hit the ball
at the right point.
I never once thought of any of that.
Kind of just relax,
don't think about it, and just do.
[Federer] When I think of Serena,
right away the first thing
I think about
is perfect serve motion.
The ball toss is perfect.
The high elbow.
She's got the power,
she's got the kick.
Consistency.
[commentator 1] Wow.
[commentator 2] That was great.
[Federer] I don't know how much better
you can have a serve motion.
[commentator 1] And Serena
puts the pressure right on her.
Four for four.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
That's what allowed her
to wake up at 3:00 in the morning,
"Um, Serena, can you please
quickly hit an ace?"
"Yes, absolutely."
Bang, here it goes.
"Can I go back to sleep?"
That's kind of how it felt to me.
[commentator] Serena
is the Wimbledon champion.
[Mouratoglou]
When she won Wimbledon,
it was her 14th Grand Slam.
I felt like it was her first.
You have no idea
about the emotion she had
when she won that Grand Slam.
I mean, every time
she won a Grand Slam,
she had crazy emotion,
but this one
I think was probably
the most emotional.
Because she didn't win
a Grand Slam for two years.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
I've been asked,
"What did you feel?"
Because for me, it was
the first Grand Slam as a coach.
And I said, "Nothing.
I felt her emotion.
I felt the joy that she was feeling.
I was so much in her,
I felt what she felt.
I couldn't feel for myself.
[Serena] I was so happy.
I remember just saying over and over,
"I won Wimbledon."
Like, I couldn't believe it.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
I do remember my mom saying,
"When you get to be 30,
this is when you'll be
your strongest ever."
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Championship number seven
for Roger Federer,
the greatest of all time?
[Federer] We were able
to prove ourselves
and take the game again
to another level at now over 30,
to still show that we can still do it
and still hopefully do it
for a long time.
[Serena] The comeback
and win Wimbledon, it was a rebirth.
I needed to redo.
I needed to, like,
shed all my old skin,
and I needed to just put on new skin.
There needed to be a new Serena.
[commentator 1] The questions will begin
immediately for Serena.
"How many more can you win?"
Fourteen is great.
[commentator 2] Champions are greedy.
And so that created
a whole new animal.
[roaring]
[reporter] The winner
of this tournament,
of this match, will be the only player
to have won two Grand Slams
this year.
[yells]
[crowd cheering]
[yells indistinctly]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Mouratoglou] Confidence is something
that you build.
[roars]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
The only right way to think,
and that's my job,
is how, day after day,
you build confidence.
Come on!
[Mouratoglou]
So, I have to keep pushing her,
-and she again pushing me.
-[grunting]
[Mouratoglou] And when you have
this special chemistry
-[yelling]
-[Mouratoglou] it makes wonders.
-[roaring]
-[Serena] It was really
just about me focusing
on the smaller details.
He can bring things that
can make me more consistent.
It wasn't like he was
trying to change my game.
He was just trying to add to it.
It's definitely Serena 3.0.
Come on!
This is another version.
I'm actually playing better
than I have ever played,
-and I'm just winning.
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
And it was nice to just be able
to consistently show up.
[horn blows]
[reporter] And we are ready
for the women's championship
of the U.S. Open.
[Serena] By the time I made it
to the 2014 U.S. Open,
I was on top of the world.
[Mouratoglou] Fifteen minutes
before the match starts,
I turned to her, and she's like this.
[imitates snoring] She's sleeping.
And I can't believe that she's sleeping
fifteen minutes before entering
a Grand Slam final.
So, I wake her up and I say,
"You're not sleeping, are you?"
"Oh, yeah."
And I've never seen this in my life.
Players, before entering the court,
they are so stressed,
all of them without any exception.
It's impossible to sleep.
She was so calm this day
that she fell asleep.
It's crazy.
[Federer] She was always very relaxed,
and I always thought
that was so interesting
how we all played so different,
and I could not play like that.
[Mouratoglou] With Serena,
in December every year,
we had a long talk
about the goals for the season.
And my job is to find a way
for the player
to enter the courts
with the right intentions
and to take the fears away
as much as possible
so that the player can
express fully his potential.
But of course, for her, the goal
is to win all the tournaments.
[Serena] My goal in 2015
was to win a Calendar Grand Slam.
[Mouratoglou] A Calendar Slam
means winning
the four Grand Slams the same year
from January to September.
A Calendar Slam
is probably the most difficult thing
to do in tennis.
You cannot be at the top
four times in a season.
I mean, that's why
it doesn't happen.
[reporter] Steffi Graf,
the 19-year-old West German,
stepped into the sports
history books this week.
She became only the fifth person
to ever win the Grand Slam of tennis.
[Mouratoglou] But geniuses
can do it sometimes.
Very rarely.
-CREW: Camera roll.
-B206.
Take two. Go, sticks.
[Serena] Going into 2015,
I just came off
of winning the U.S. Open,
and I felt like
no one could beat me.
[Mouratoglou] Just winning
a Grand Slam is so difficult.
Not only you have to win
seven matches
during two weeks, but it's a journey.
It's two weeks.
Anything can happen during
those two weeks. Anything.
An injury. Being sick.
Uh, losing confidence after a match.
Playing the player you hate to play
that plays her best that day.
Anything can happen.
MAN: Go, Maria!
[Mouratoglou] And getting sick
during a tournament,
these things that happen,
and actually it happened
to Serena a few times.
[reporter] Oh, no. It now appears
Serena is having
all sorts of problems.
She has gone into the tunnel
with an apparent coughing fit.
[Serena] I remember running,
throwing up,
and coming right back.
And I'm gonna tell you,
it only took a couple minutes,
two, three minutes, you know.
I don't take a lot of time
when I jump off a court.
[reporter] Serena is back on court now.
[Serena] I don't know what happened.
Maybe I ate something bad
before the match.
[reporter] Head coach
Patrick Mouratoglou
has a look of concern as well.
2015 Australian Open, she's sick and
sick, not sick, injured, not injured.
Any problem, she will deal with.
[umpire] Game, Williams.
[commentator] She doesn't appear
to be in great shape.
[Serena] You don't wanna be sick
in a Grand Slam.
It sucks.
It's rough.
[Federer] You had to go through
the same amount of practices
and figure it out.
You have to go through injuries
and mental downs
and fighting the demons,
and then fight your way
out of those holes.
[commentator] Championship point.
That's it.
[umpire] Game, set, match, Ms. Williams.
[commentator] Serena Williams
rules again.
Grand Slam title number 19.
[commentator 2] It's almost like
she turns on a switch
and gets to another level.
[Serena] Every year I win Australia,
everyone talks about a Calendar Slam.
[reporter] So, you've held
the Serena Slam,
but it wasn't a calendar year.
-Oh, my God.
-Come on. Come on.
I would love to get there,
but I have to get to 20 first.
I'm just happy with this title,
and I hope just to continue,
and that's it.
That's all I think about.
Let's just focus
on the next Grand Slam,
which was the French Open.
I started to feel sick
at the French Open
in the third round against Azarenka.
[grunting]
[Serena] Something was off.
I saw a step off,
a step slow, something.
[announcer speaks French]
[Serena] I ended up winning that match.
-[grunting]
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Serena Williams then wins
after two hours and three minutes.
[Serena] And then in the fourth round,
the round of 16,
I played Sloane Stephens,
and I was two steps off.
[commentator] She's not moving well.
She's a step or two too slow.
[commentator] That's in.
[umpire] Set and match,
Mademoiselle Williams.
[Serena] After that match,
and I got through it,
I just started to go downhill.
I just was starting to get sick,
and then I got really sick.
[coughs]
[reporter] All these long matches here,
can they get you battle-tested,
or are you worried
about running out of gas at this point?
I'm not worried
about running out of gas.
You know, I'm I'm 33.
I'm not gonna be playing
another 10 years,
so I better not run out of gas now.
I'm not gonna quit.
Why stop now?
I'm gonna keep going
as hard as I can until I'm out.
[yells]
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
-[thunder crashes]
[Serena] If that means I have
to go another nine sets,
then so be it.
But nothing's gonna make me
run out of gas.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Federer] She was sick, you know,
but you don't wanna tell anyone
because you don't want the
[chuckles] the draw to know
that you're not feeling well.
[coughs] Excusez-moi. Uh, je
[Federer] And then yet still
you're explaining yourself
to the media, how,
"No, everything's great.
I'm struggling a little bit
today with rhythm and stuff,"
but actually [chuckles]
you're having loads of pain.
I'm just gonna go home
and relax and [coughs]
Excuse me. I'm so sorry.
try to pull myself together,
and I just have to play well.
It doesn't matter who I play.
They're gonna come out swinging,
and, you know,
I have to be ready for that.
We got to the semifinals.
I'm on the sidelines
just sitting like this basically.
[commentator] You shouldn't be
out there if you look like that
[man in stands]
Let's go, Serena. Let's go!
[Serena] I was, like, I gotta lose.
Like, I can't go on like this.
Somehow I won,
and my fever was so high
at this point
I went to the locker room,
and I just broke.
[Mouratoglou] After every match,
she would come back to the locker room,
lay down on the floor,
and cry for one hour
because she was just out of herself.
She was exhausted.
I was just bawling. I was like,
I didn't wanna win that match.
Like, I just wanna go home.
I can't believe
I'm, you know, winning.
I just didn't
I just literally needed to go home.
And I'm shaking.
I have such a fever.
I remember Marion Bartoli
was there,
and she helped me
take off, like, my dress
'cause I couldn't get undressed.
Someone had to come, like,
take off my tape.
I-I physically was in a position
where I could not move.
How can you win a Grand Slam like this?
I don't know how it's possible.
It's just impossible.
You can't take a whole lot of
the medications that all of us
would take normally
for a cold and a flu
-No.
-because they could show up
on the doping scan.
So, the players have to make do
with the old-fashioned methods,
and she's not getting over it
nearly as quickly
as she would have liked,
that's for sure.
'Cause this thing has dragged o
now for more than a week.
[Serena] I guess you have to have
an approval
to get some sort of
non-performance-enhancing drug,
just something to suppress my cold.
[Mouratoglou] She was like anyone
going to the pharmacy
and taking regular medicine for flu,
which do nothing.
Like, if you take nothing,
it's the same.
The approval process,
they're off on weekends.
[laughs] And so you're, like, wait.
This is a joke, right?
No, like,
"No, we're off on the weekends,
so you can get an approval
on Monday."
"Well, the French Open final
is on Saturday,
and we need the approval
today on Friday
because she's not getting better."
So, I was going to the doctor,
and I say, "Can you
Do you have something stronger?
Because she cannot play tennis."
She has
We have to get rid of this flu.
Her temperature has to go down.
Uh, but because of the doping, no.
[coughs]
[Serena] I remember practicing,
and I'm coughing so hard
that I can't even hit a ball.
I just start coughing so much
that I'm starting to cry
'cause I can't breathe.
And, you know,
I have my lung issues already,
Patrick comes over,
and he's like, "Let's go.
You're not gonna practice right now."
We didn't do one practice.
She could not practice.
We didn't do one warmup
before the matches.
She couldn't warm up.
She was in bed.
I remember being at her apartment.
I'm sitting on the bed.
I feel her fever from
I'm one meter away from her.
She's so hot that I feel it.
[Serena] And I'm thinking,
like, why am I here?
Like, I need to just pull out
at this point.
Like I I don't [sighs]
I didn't have it in me
to pull out at a Grand Slam
right now at this point in my career.
I just couldn't pull the plug.
Maybe I should've,
but I couldn't.
I'm not looking
at the beginning of my career.
I don't have another 10 years
to play, you know?
It was, like, every Grand Slam counts.
The next day, I woke up,
and I was, like,
I gotta toughen this out.
I'm in the finals
of the French Open.
Let me toughen this out.
[reporter] Today's win
would mean she is going
for 20 Grand Slam titles,
a milestone reached
only by two players in history.
[announcer] Serena Williams!
[commentator] Ms. Williams
trying to keep alive
the potential for a Calendar Slam.
[Serena] My body was aching.
I remember just being exhausted.
I would describe it as
the infamous flu game
with Jordan.
[buzzer sounds]
The only difference is
it's just me out there.
There is no teammate.
You're on the line
for every single point.
Somehow I won the first set.
[commentator] Williams' mindset today
is just get this over and done with.
I remember just being exhausted.
[grunting]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[grunts]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Compounding
the pressure on Serena now.
[Mouratoglou] This is why
she's who she is.
[thunder rumbling]
When she sees herself losing
[thunder rumbles]
[yells]
then a rage is coming.
[thunder booms]
And this rage
she's using to play much better.
Come on! Come on!
[Serena] I remember being angry.
Not angry that she was playing good.
I was angry that
I hadn't closed out the match.
Come on!
-[yells]
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
And I was, like, okay, don't get mad.
Just play. [laughs]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Mouratoglou] And this rage
gave her the possibility
to start playing tennis,
even though she was
as sick as you can be.
[grunts]
-[umpire] Out!
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
[grunts]
-Come on!
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Serena] I can't quit
no matter how much
I want to sometimes,
no matter how much
I say I don't care.
[grunting]
I don't know if there's
something deeper in me
that just continues,
like, to move my body
without me moving it, you know.
Like an outer body experience.
I don't know.
Come on!
[commentator] Body language
has just risen through the roof
Is there another twist in the story?
All I know is, like,
I'm so glad that something
in me refused to give up.
I don't know what it was,
'cause I had given up. [chuckles]
But something in me
must have wanted to win.
[grunting]
And that's what I did.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer speaks indistinctly]
What she did in 2015 at
Roland-Garros, I'm gonna say it.
I think it's the greatest achievement
in sport ever.
[crowd cheering]
I've never seen something
like this in my life,
and I think it defines Serena.
When you see what she's capable of
during that tournament,
she makes things impossible
become possible.
That's why she's who she is.
[reporter] Aren't you tired?
I mean, how do you feel
right now physically,
let alone emotionally?
[Serena] I think I'm gonna faint
in 20 minutes.
I'm, like, trying to hold it up
but I don't think I'm doing so well.
So, um, but it's just
I don't know.
Twenty is pretty amazing to me.
Unfortunately, I'm thinking
about Wimbledon, so
-Already?
-I know, I know.
[reporter laughs] Already?
I know. It's bad, it's bad.
I know.
[Serena] After winning
the tournament, though,
all I could think about
was winning Wimbledon.
I didn't dream
in my wildest dreams
that I would have a chance
to do a second Serena Slam.
I had already done one,
and usually
you do one per career.
And here I am in my 30s,
and I had a good chance
of doing it again.
I had a lot of momentum
behind me.
[commentator] And finally, we begin
the ladies singles final of 2015.
[commentator] Take that.
We might just have a match here.
Oh, that was a match.
[grunts]
[commentator] Early signs
of nerves showing here.
Well, she played so good in that match.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[grunting]
[announcer] A little interference.
[Serena] That was a fun match.
In retrospect.
It was not fun during.
[grunts]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] That was utter disdain.
When I used to see,
I mean, Serena play,
I saw an unbelievable,
fierce competitor.
On top of it, more power
than anybody in the game.
And when she was dialed in
and really wanted to be the best,
I mean, she was easily the best,
you know,
and I think that was just
so mighty impressive.
[commentator] And she's done it.
[umpire] Game, set, match.
[commentator] Once again,
the queen of center court.
[Serena] It was amazing
to win four in a row again.
It's awesome.
It's really awesome.
[reporter] The Calendar Slam's in sight,
to be continued in New York.
[Serena] I honestly
wouldn't have thought
last year after winning the U.S. Open
I would win the Serena Slam at all.
I mean, I've been trying
to win four in a row
for 12 years.
And having all four trophies at home
is incredible.
Anyone on tour
would take four in a row
and be happy with it.
There's one person that wouldn't,
and that would be me.
[reporter] When did you first think
about New York,
and what was the feeling there,
looking ahead?
-Um
-Or do you not, maybe?
-Oh, come on.
-[all laughing]
Yeah, I was feeling really good
so maybe a little bit after that,
I started thinking about New York.
[chuckles]
[reporter] The Calendar Slam's in sight,
to be continued in New York.
[Serena] I'd won four Grand Slams
in a row again,
and I was going for
my fifth Grand Slam in a row.
And there was so much pressure.
Everything was Serena.
[reporter] The countdown at Arthur Ashe
for what feels like a Super Bowl event.
[Serena] The U.S. Open poster.
It was a Serena poster for that year.
And everything was about Serena,
so it was a lot of pressure.
And I didn't take it as a privilege.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[reporter] Serena Williams
seven matches away
from the Calendar Slam,
which no one has achieved
since Steffi Graf
back in 1988.
[grunts]
[umpire] Game, set, match,
Serena Williams.
[reporter] The Grand Slam dream
is still alive,
but what a fight.
[reporter] Face a familiar
opponent now in the semifinal,
that's Roberta Vinci.
What are the challenges in that matchup?
You know, she has nothing to lose.
I don't either,
so we're just gonna go out
and have a lot of fun.
She is at the table
for the greatest of all time.
There's nobody can touch her now.
You give her no chance
to lose this match?
I have her no chance.
How about you?
-No chance.
-[laughs] Okay.
[reporter] Serena right now
is an absolute force of nature.
The only thing that can stop her
is if she trips over
all the garbage
on the streets of New York
and twists her ankle.
[reporter] Roberta Vinci,
the 43rd woman in the world
against the number one,
Serena Williams.
[Mouratoglou]
The pressure is really high.
She's supposed to play that day,
and she's ready to win.
And I-I know her.
She was ready to win
-[thunder rumbling]
-and it rains.
[reporter] Day 11
at the U.S. Open a washout.
Players getting the word
that the semifinals
for the women
would be played on Friday.
[Mouratoglou] At that time,
there was no roof,
and she plays the day after.
And I will remember all my life.
I'm waiting for her
at the stadium
to go warm up before the match,
before the semifinal.
She steps out of the car.
I look at her, and I think "Fuck."
Excuse us. Excuse us.
She's not like yesterday.
Something in her mind was wrong
that wasn't there the day before,
the day she was supposed to play.
[Serena] I became a little unsure
of myself.
I began to doubt myself.
And doubt is the worst thing
that you can have in tennis.
When doubt creeps in,
your game isn't as tight
as it needs to be.
Well, I think physically,
the extra day helps everyone.
I think psychologically,
it gives her a lot more time
to think about
what she's playing for,
so it could add
a little bit more stress,
if that's even possible.
[reporter] Maybe Roberta Vinci
can be the one to derail
Serena Williams and history.
[announcer] Serena Williams.
[Mouratoglou] She can still win.
But if the girl
on the other side of the court
plays the match of her life,
we're really in the shit.
[grunting]
You don't win Grand Slams
with your tennis.
The tennis is the consequence
of who you are,
how you think,
how you process,
the mindset you have
when you enter the court.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
You win Grand Slams
with your heart.
[umpire] Game.
[commentator] Well, look good
at that face right there
from Serena of angst
and disgust and tension.
[Serena] It's not a great feeling
when you're not able
to make the right shot.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Tension's building.
[Serena] You can't show up
and be your best every day.
[grunts]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Mouratoglou] We should never forget
that players are humans,
humans who have doubts,
goals,
emotions,
and that plays a big part
in the success or not.
[commentator 1] And Vinci has taken
her level of play up a bit.
[commentator 2] She's maximizing
this opportunity,
this window
that's been given to her.
[commentator 1]
This is so much history
-in the sport at stake.
-[thunder rumbling]
[Serena] It was so overwhelming for me
because all the pressure
that I was starting to feel,
all the pressure
that I was putting on myself,
all the pressure that
I was feeling from just around,
I think started to add up.
[grunting]
[Mouratoglou] When you are
playing Grand Slams,
big matches, crazy emotions,
crazy stress, crazy pressure,
the only thing you can rely on
[Serena grunts]
is your confidence.
If it's not strong enough,
it's gonna be a meltdown.
[commentator] Serena giving her
absolute all
trying to chase that last one down.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[commentator] Vinci, "What about me?"
[cheering continues]
I can't imagine the pressure
she's feeling now.
[commentator 2] Well, it's evident
that Serena's playing
two opponents right now,
playing Roberta on the other side,
and she's playing herself.
[Serena] The semifinal sucked,
and I hated it,
That's one thing my therapist tells me
not to talk about
[laughs] for my sanity.
-[yells]
-[shoes squeak on court]
[crowd gasps and cheers]
[commentator] An extraordinary upset.
Italy's Roberta Vinci
ends Serena Williams' Grand Slam run.
[Serena] I didn't play well.
I won the second set.
I should have won the match.
I should have won the tournament,
and I'll forever regret that.
[commentator] And Serena departs.
[crowd cheers]
[Mouratoglou] This loss killed her.
She said to me,
"I feel that I worked
for that moment all my life,
and I screwed up everything."
Can you imagine?
After winning
four Grand Slams in a row
and losing in the semifinal
of the fifth,
she's saying,
"I screwed up everything."
That's unbelievable.
I say that because
it says everything
about how she processes.
[commentator]
She put so much hard work
into trying to pull this off.
It just shows you how difficult it is.
[Serena] It was a really difficult time.
I feel like I could have won,
um, and I didn't.
And honestly, I feel like
I could have done
lot of things better
in that tournament.
Not only in the tournament,
but also, just, like,
prep for the tournament
and, like
You know how
you feel like, gosh,
if I'd have trained here
or if I'd have done that,
or if it hadn't rained
three days in a row or
What would have happened?
Like, it was so many
So much of that happening.
It was a very difficult pill
for me to swallow
because ultimately, I got outplayed.
It was just a perfect storm
for me to lose.
But inside,
I just wanted to just go home
and just scream into a pillow
as loud as I could.
That's all I'm gonna say
about that.
[Mouratoglou] She didn't win
the Calendar Slam,
but being able to help her
achieve history is incredible.
[man in distance] Love you, Serena!
[Mouratoglou]
There is only one Serena.
In the history of our game,
there will never be another one.
But what she's achieved shows it.
But when you know her,
you see her drive,
the results she's made,
her legacy
it's just a confirmation
that she's completely exceptional.
[Federer] It humbles you
a little bit, you know,
when you're not winning
all the time.
She entered the tour
with a huge bang,
and, like, "Here I am.
And I'm gonna be dominant.
I'm gonna be great."
So, I think for her then to navigate
and have such a long career,
is something
I truly admire about her.
[Serena] It doesn't end the way
it does in the movies,
and no matter how much I feel like
it could and it should,
and no matter what
I could have done different,
it wasn't my story.
[crowd cheering]
Winning is so glamorous,
you know,
and everyone thinks
it's so amazing when you win.
It is. It really is,
but the more you win,
the harder it is to lose.
I don't think I was able to move on
from that U.S. Open loss.
[thunder rumbling]
I was just so angry
and just so sad
and just so disappointed
in myself,
said no one with 21,
at the time, Grand Slams.
But it wasn't enough for me.
[crowd cheering]
Winning can sometimes be ugly.
You could be sick.
You could feel like
you're on top of the world,
and then one bad match,
and it's just over.
It's all over.
It's humbling.
Sport is humbling.
Because no matter who you are,
at some point you're gonna lose,
and it keeps you very humble.
Winning is not guaranteed.
No matter what you do,
no matter how much work you do,
it's not always guaranteed,
and that's something
I just had to learn.