Coaching Against Serena Williams? It’s Not Easy
By CRAIG O'SHANNESSY
What is it like to coach against the four-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams on Centre Court at the championships?
Well, it’s like experiencing a beautiful dream and a horrifying nightmare all at the same time.
That’s exactly what it was like Thursday for me as part of Melinda Czink’s coaching team, with Williams winning 6-1, 6-4 in a second-round match she controlled from the first shot to the last.
I have coached against Novak Djokovic on center court at the Australian Open and against Rafael Nadal on center court at the Toronto Master,s and never have I felt that a match was played more on the opponent’s terms than the player I was coaching.
Williams has the ability to take the racket out of your hands, forcing you to react and counter rather than dictate and control.
Her main weapon is power, and the preferred delivery method is her serve.
Williams won the toss and elected to serve, and the first two points produced aces. She then dropped a 119 m.p.h. bomb down the T that Czink missed long with a forehand return. That’s world class, even on the men’s tour. James Blake, David Nalbandian, David Ferrer and Radek Stepanek also recorded 119 m.p.h. as their fastest serves in the opening round.
Williams hit her third ace of the game at 40-0, and just like that the first game was over and a statement had been made without a word being spoken.
My role with Melinda Czink is specifically strategic, and I work with her coach, Mark Gellard, to form a game plan that maximizes Melinda’s strengths and uncovesr the right way to exploit the opponent’s weaknesses.
It’s all in the matchup, but Williams’s power is a lethal weapon that can counter the best laid plans. It’s hard to break serve when you are not allowed to hit the ball.
Williams hit 28 first serves in the match and won 27 of them. It was incredible how hard she was consistently hitting it, and how well she was hitting her spots.
It was the most dominant serving display I think I have ever seen – certainly on the women’s tour.
Czink’s tiny window of opportunity existed when Williams missed her first serve (16 times) and Czink got a look at the second serve.
But it proved to be only a slight downgrade in weaponry as Williams won 10 of 16 (63 percent) of her second-serve points as well. Czink was trying to step in and attack the second serve, which was definitely something we targeted before the match, but the depth, speed and kick of Serena’s second serve made it very difficult to make any headway in this area as well.
Czink had to make an adjustment in the match to actually step back a little to create more time and space for the return.
Williams would end the match with 10 aces, including one on a second serve at 5-1 in the first set that kicked sharply off the line in a cloud of chalk.
She served only one double fault and did not have to face a break point on serve in the match.
Melinda’s loss was not because she was playing poorly, or not sticking to the game plan – it was because her opponent was not letting her play.
Williams was trying to keep the points as short and powerful as possible while Melinda was trying to develop the point more to create openings to attack. Williams ultimately won this battle as there were only three points out of 96 that got to 10 shots or more.
On the other end of the spectrum, 71 points (73 percent) were decided within the first three shots of the rally. Points came and went in the blink of an eye.
Ultimately Czink could not get into enough points to make Williams uncomfortable and start to erode her confidence. The pressure from Williams serving so well made it easier for her to be more aggressive in her return games and play even bigger once they did develop a rally.
I also worked with Melinda Czink at Wimbledon last year, when she upset world No. 10 Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-4 in the first round before losing to No. 20 Shuai Peng 6-2, 7-6 in the third round. My work behind the scenes crunching IBM match data and analyzing video creates a clear vision of how we want the match to unfold and areas of the court to attack.
On Thursday Serena Williams’s power took over Centre Court, and the game plan became tough to implement. Some days you just have to say too good. Thursday, on the greatest court in the world, was one of those days.
