When we think of women’s tennis, the name Serena Williams almost always comes to mind. For that reason, it may come as a bit of a surprise that Serena is more passionate about shopping than she is about tennis. When you see a player show this much emotion during a match, you might assume they love what they do. For Williams, that is not the case.
On Monday, Serena defeated Chanelle Scheepers in the first round of the Brisbane International. It was her first match since last September’s U.S. Open loss, but after hearing Williams talk you wouldn’t even think she missed playing.
“I don’t love tennis today but I am here – I can’t live without it so I am still here,” she said according to NineMSN.com. “It was never that I have fallen out of love with it – I have actually never liked sports. I have never understood how I became an athlete – I don’t like working out. Anything that involves sitting down or shopping I am excellent at that.”
Williams explained that she is not contemplating retirement, but said she hopes that playing less in 2012 will help keep her motivation up for tennis. In other words, she gets sick of all tennis, all the time: “I have always been preparing myself for life after tennis.”
While it may disappoint some, Serena is being honest. The truth of the matter is there are a lot of athletes like her in the world. To think that every superstar athlete loves what they do would be naive. Just like there are plenty of people working in tall buildings in New York City just for the $500,000 a year salary, there are tennis players out there who play because they’re great at it. It sounds like Serena is one of them.
