I'm Playing Wimbledon Until I'm 50 | Venus Williams

Okay, so these are images you haven't seen before. This is me in March and this is literally my second practice after getting injured in Australia where I visited two of three really really good hamstring bindings and I'm getting back on track. In court, I didn't do any kind of rehab or anything like that for about eight weeks because I just needed a mental break after being injured for two years and what really motivated me was that before this I was in London, obviously I was in Paris and I ended up passing by the French Open, my driver and the taxi or whatever I was in was going the wrong way and I passed by the French Open and I looked and I thought it would be really fun to be there and that motivated me , so I'm in Paris without rackets or anything Serena keeps the rackets in pairs I search until I find them I keep looking I find them I'm wearing her shoes the soles are coming off because she wears braces and even though that's how I started I had to buy something tennis team and here we are hitting balls and this is my second practice.

Wimbledon is always special no matter when you visit and in fact as a player it's probably even more special when you visit outside of the tournament because you had to bring it all. It's not as hectic, it's not like preparing for a game where you can barely enjoy where you are. I have so many good memories here. I have played many of these chords with my sister, I won many matches and this trophy where they keep all the trophies here at the club is also very special. This sign here they say it's supposed to be luck that when you go out to center court you're supposed to touch the sign, touch the wall, so if you can take on Triumph With Disaster or you're going to win something like this.

Don't know. I like to think that all the years of training bring incredible luck. Preparation is the only thing that can make you luckier. How about that, but the trophies are gorgeous to hold and don't allow you to hold them for too long. You can hold them for a few seconds. It's gone, but it will remain forever. Your name on that trophy let's move fast. This is June 2023. Three months later, I went through rehab, which is one of the hardest in my life. I have regained my confidence and am now batting on pitch one. In previous years they didn't open court one until you had the first game.

Now they are opening the courts. you can hit them and warm up and break up the courts at one point apparently they had little problems with the slippery courts because no one was

playing

on them so I got a chance to open court one. It was a great honor that I had.

playing

with Katie Swan was a really beautiful experience that my whole team appreciated, we got to walk in and we were getting dressed, oh we're like, wow, look at the chords, uh, it was amazing and for me it was really a full circle coming here. in March I started just my second practice and now I'm playing at a really high level playing how I want to play and now it's time to go, now it's time to do this, okay, fast forward, now it's July and I'm back in Wimbledon and it's a lot since March when I was hitting my first balls, I couldn't move, I couldn't lift my leg much and I'm starting to learn to take the time to be proud of what I achieve because I always want to do it.

I achieve so much that I am never satisfied and because I always want more, what I have achieved is not enough and now I am learning to take more moments to observe the great things I have done, even if they are not. I look at the outcome I wanted, okay, I'm happy this happened and I appreciate that kind of thing, so now is a big time for me, appreciating how my body is holding up. I'm grateful that I can be here. at Wimbledon and competing and doing my best those kinds of things I appreciate every day so this is a big moment of appreciation and excitement and also like you know come on I'm ready so it turns out I'm going to go.

Playing on center court for the first game is not a very unfamiliar place for me. I have played many finals there if I take into account. We are going to count six singles, let's not wait, nine singles finals, six doubles finals and two mixed doubles finals. and an Olympic doubles final which is a lot of finals so you can add that up so I've had a lot of wonderful experiences on this court that's basically what I'm saying and I hope to get back out there and I have come. full circle this is a circle this is what happens when you push yourself even when you're not you're not sure how you're going to get there but you know you have to do it um and you overcome the fear because there were definitely moments where I thought, " "I'm going to be able to play again without getting hurt again and just build that confidence." Let go of fear.

Do the work. Get the trust. Come back and raise some more hell.