After her Australian Open win, World No 1 talks about her poor health and humble tennis beginnings
Melbourne: Serena Williams planned to celebrate her 19th Grand Slam title by heading to bed after defying illness and a battling performance from Maria Sharapova to win the Australian Open on Saturday.
The 33-year-old revealed she had been sick off court during a rain delay in the opening set but recovered.
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Williams left the court and later revealed on Channel 7: “I had a really bad cough and ended up throwing up actually. I think that helped when I got everything out of me and cleared my chest out because I couldn’t breathe a little bit.
Cold and cough
“I’ve had a really bad cold and cough. Usually when that happens you stay in bed for a week, you don’t play matches every other day and practice every other day. Now I have a couple of days to take a deep breath and lay down.
“I’m going to go to bed and curl up under some covers and go to sleep. That sounds excellent right now.”
Those days...
Speaking during the trophy presentation, Williams said: “Growing up I wasn’t the richest but I had a rich family in spirit and support. I went on the court (in Compton, Los Angeles) with just a ball, a racquet and a hope and that’s all I had.”
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