My Unbelievable Triumph at BIRMINGHAM CLASSIC 2023 Venus Williams

He's unrelated to the upcoming event here in Birmingham, England, so historically I've only played Wimbledon on grass, so playing with his talking brush was like playing here for the first time. I played here once a few years ago, maybe five years ago, I can't keep track, so I'm doing new things, people, and new year, new me, I don't know exactly what it is, but it's fun here, like these ports were pristine pitches and um and their toggenbosch were really good and will probably be the same. Better yet, what's a big crooked match going on there? Everyone is going crazy.

I've never been to a cricket match, but I have my own match here. I have to focus on playing in a few days, so due to the new conditions abroad, you probably can. you'll develop arthritis, but you'll get it, it feels bad, man, relaxation, coming here, okay, this one here, oh yeah, that's not going to work, no, yeah, forehand, yeah, if we can recognize those short balls, reach even them a little faster, it will be a big difference keep looking for that depth off the ground good long swings good height like that yes that's that that's that's a different ball so I remember watching Assassin that was one of the things that stood out in my head was like she has to do more damage with second serves the second serve returns some strange damage much more than you've been.

I feel like it served better overall over a longer period of time, like there wasn't that drop towards the end where the legs weren't working. either you weren't going up like you just stayed pretty solid throughout it was good and you hit the ball deeper consistently much more than last week after not rushing or someone usually passes when you have to take two or three steps towards each side. and then you go away to recover quickly stay down execute and then go abroad my name is Isabel britito and I am Venus' physiotherapist I do all her physiotherapy treatment in terms of before going out on the court after we do dry needling massage myofascial stretching good You already know all these types of treatments to have her 100 ready for tournaments and daily practice and do some prevention or if there is some kind of discomfort to be able to manage that I am very excited because Venus has not played in six months apart from that Libyma match , he did very well, although if it wasn't a victory, in my opinion it was a victory because his body was good after the game, which is something we may not have had in the past. so your body is responding well, you know, working with Venus is a real privilege and I feel honored, I feel completely honored, but I am also very happy to see here doing good and that's it.

You want her to keep walking as long as you want as she wants and she's already on her second time ah thank you no no no no no no no oh my goodness thank you and 16 minutes thank you very much come on I'm so proud you did it amazing come on that's crazy. I'm so, what's up? Oh, she is speechless and at the same time she has so many words. It's tough right there, okay, good job, everyone win the game. I don't sound that excited but I'm very excited and it's great to do this with my team.

The only person missing now is my family and Serena. My first game in Holland. It was difficult. Everything was going so fast. I just ran out of energy too. I just didn't have anything at the end to win that match, but as I was playing the match today I thought I was in the third set and I'm not tired, it's like I have a chance here. and I was also thinking about four months of work, one win, all the work necessary to achieve this victory today, that way you can take advantage of it and I remember when I started my rehab it was March 27, the first one. serious rehab and for the first eight weeks after my injury I was so exhausted from being constantly injured for years that I had to take it literally.

It took me two months just to mentally recover from all my injuries, so it feels amazing to be here. now and overcome all those problems with my body, even today on the court, you know, playing a great game, I get up 3-0, my knee starts to hurt and I think, what the hell, how was this happening? It was very emotional. To be honest, it's a challenge, but in my head I'm thinking I have to play this match the way I need to. I haven't played any games. I need a match. I have to play this game and I will never be able to leave the field.

It's just not mine. I have to give everything. I couldn't have walked off that court knowing that I could possibly have walked out of winter today, so this is an incredible moment for me. We were just getting cold walking around the court. Talking about the last few years and what that's been like for me, I've played a total of six tournaments in the last few years and my last singles win was two years ago, but then again, I clearly haven't played many. matches, um, in the last six months I played a tournament and one in January and then one before that was in September, so it's not easy to be this Rusty and still give your best tennis against opponents who really play above their head when they come out.

On the court against me there are no easy games, no matter how long I've been away, people still play the best they can against me and that's okay, I'm okay with that because I'm here to win, it doesn't matter. I'm here to play the ball, not my opponent, so at this point I have to figure out what's going on with my knee because it's still there, obviously it hurts less when you win, when you lose it hurts more, but it doesn't matter. No matter what's going on, I give it my all on the court, I just do it, I don't know any other way, I can't make excuses, so it feels good to have done all that work and overcome even more adversity today.

And I hope I can figure this out and get on the court in the next game without pain, but right now this feels really good because not only do you have to be prepared physically, but the mental battle is actually harder than possibly the physical battle, so overcoming the physical and the mental today feels amazing and makes me know that I can do more thank you hello I'm Hugo Armando I'm from Palm Beach Gardens Florida and I'm Venus Williams' coach in my day to day life It's just so you know, help Venus to guide her a little bit on and off the court, making sure that all she has to do is focus on her tennis, but the way I prepare is to make sure, especially with Venus, her health. she's number one, so we want to make sure she's healthy, she's ready to play, she feels good once she's established, so I try to do the best job I can of scouting her as her opponent and just giving Venus three or four things. on which to concentrate.

You're really going to help her, you know when the teacher is going to make the difference, whether you're focusing on, serves, pressure on returns or certain patterns that her opponent might have, keeping it simple, direct and just making sure she's ready. We all know how much she loves being here and competing and being in tournaments and if she's not healthy she can't do it, so the number one goal is for her to stay healthy for a long period of time so she can compete consistently, I think if we're able to Do that, she will continue to play as well as she can, she will be able to give herself many opportunities to win many matches and that is something that I know she is going to love and she will enjoy not only the victories but also the process of being able to see you on the tour and play a lot of tournaments, you know, because you can tell even after the win against Georgie in the first round, that big smile on his face, that kind of says it all, you know, so I hope we get to see a lot more of those smiles in the future, thank you, thank you, so it was a great tournament for me, not the result I wanted, it's never the result unless you win the whole thing. but coming out of this I realized that I got what I needed from those events, which was serious match practice and realizing that I'm here, I'm playing these tournaments and I'm playing very, very well and that I'm able to move, I can hit the ball, I'm serving better than ever and all these different things that were super positive and then I had to realize that I'm so intense about the results that I want for myself that I had to do it.

I have to realize that I've played a lot fewer games than almost everyone and sometimes that comes up a little bit, but I always put myself in this incredible position, exactly where I would like to be to have a chance to win and with each game it will get better and better, so that I have some clarity after the match, since I was not so happy because I felt that I could win even though I was not perfectly healthy, but that is also grass, you can get injured a lot. You can easily pinch your leg here, you throw things because it's so intense that it doesn't seem intense, you'll say, oh, it's grass, it's softer, it's actually a lot harder on the body because you have to bend a lot more because the balls are so low. and they put an extra strain on it, especially for someone my height, by the way, I'm 6'1 if you didn't know and um, just with my proportions, my legs are like I'm bending around them, so being able to overcome these tournaments and get through my matches and do well, I don't think anyone is very excited to play against me because I'm playing well and what matters most is winning the last point, so that's it.

What I'm going to focus on is winning the last point and doing my best, and that's what I'll be meditating on and I'm excited about the journey.