{"id":1312039,"date":"2019-07-02T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/serena-is-serena-goose-bumps-selfie-loss-to-williams\/"},"modified":"2019-07-02T16:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T22:44:00","slug":"serena-is-serena-goose-bumps-selfie-loss-to-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/serena-is-serena-goose-bumps-selfie-loss-to-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2019Serena is Serena\u2019: Goose bumps, selfie, loss to Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
United States’ Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Italy’s Giulia Gatto-Monticone in a Women’s singles match during day two of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 2, 2019. (AP Photo\/Ben Curtis)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

WIMBLEDON, England \u2014 Used to be that players would dread the prospect of facing Serena Williams, especially at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, they seem to be eager to go up against her \u2014 not because they think they can beat Williams, mind you, but because, well, she\u2019s Serena Williams, and what better way to create a memory for life than to share a court with one of the, if not THE, greatest in the history of tennis.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s why Giulia Gatto-Monticone, a 31-year-old qualifier from Italy making her debut at the All England Club, was thrilled when the draw put her up against Williams in the first round Tuesday, and the schedule put them on Centre Court, to boot. So what if Gatto-Monticone fell behind 5-0 in 17 minutes and wound up losing 6-2, 7-5?<\/p>\n

\u201cIncredibly happy to play her,\u201d Gatto-Monticone said afterward. \u201cSerena is Serena.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole day was, she said, \u201ca dream come true,\u201d filled with smiles and tears and goose bumps. From the tour of the stadium that she, her coach, her physiotherapist and her physiotherapist\u2019s son were given in the morning: \u201cWe went through the club members\u2019 area. Just a spectacular place. Truly beautiful couches, flowers. We saw the trophies. We saw the entrance to the court,\u201d Gatto-Monticone said.<\/p>\n

To the match itself, which was briefly even in the second set at 5-all, prompting an Italian reporter to ask whether Gatto-Monticone wondered whether maybe she had a chance: \u201cNo,\u201d came the reply, \u201cI never thought that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the handshake after the highlight-worthy 12-stroke exchange that capped the result, including a trade of volleys with both women at the net: \u201cShe told me I\u2019m an amazing player. I don\u2019t know if she really thought so, but she was so nice. I told her she\u2019s the queen of this tournament. I thanked her.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then came this: Gatto-Monticone asked the 37-year-old Williams if they could pose for a selfie together.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was sweet, because I was panicking and I couldn\u2019t find my phone,\u201d Gatto-Monticone recounted. \u201cShe said, \u2018That\u2019s fine. Don\u2019t worry. I\u2019ll take it with mine and post it on Instagram.\u2019 I said, \u2018Perfect!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider, too, the attitude of the next woman standing in the way of Williams\u2019 bid for an eighth Wimbledon championship and 24th Grand Slam singles trophy overall (which is aside from her hardware in women\u2019s doubles and mixed doubles, an event she is entering this week with Andy Murray). That\u2019s another qualifier, 18-year-old Kaja Juvan of Slovenia, who was born a little more than a year after Williams won the 1999 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

Juvan, like Gatto-Monticone, relishes the opportunity to meet Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I got the chance to still play with her,\u201d Juvan said, \u201cbecause she\u2019s done so much in her career.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is true, of course. The thing right now for Williams is that she hasn\u2019t been able to do much this season, in part because of an injured left knee that was a big reason Tuesday\u2019s match was only her 13th of 2019.<\/p>\n

Two former Wimbledon winners who have struggled this season, Maria Sharapova and Garbine Muguruza, both lost, as did a pair of major champions elsewhere, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Sam Stosur. Sharapova, who recently returned to the tour after missing five months because of a right shoulder operation, quit while one game from defeat against Pauline Parmentier at 6-4, 7-6 (4), 5-0, blaming what she said was \u201ca tendon in my left forearm flaring up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s bracket lost its third top-10 seed, though, when No. 5 Dominic Thiem, a two-time French Open runner-up, was eliminated by Sam Querrey of the United States.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 coach said over the weekend that the pain was gone from that knee in recent weeks and so they finally were able to prepare properly for a tournament. The lack of practice time and match play were reasons Williams pointed to after her third-round exit at the French Open.<\/p>\n

If her knee is fine, that not only helps her cover the court, of course, but also allows her to get some extra oomph on her serve, which when at its best is the best in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can actually use my legs now. It\u2019s been a while,\u201d said Williams, who pounded serves at up to 122 mph on Tuesday. \u201cMentally, if you\u2019re serving without legs, you\u2019re paranoid (about) hurting your shoulder, so you take a little pace off. \u2026 Now that I can actually use my legs, it just all feels better.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get to match point, Williams smacked a swinging forehand volley winner, then pumped both arms, leaned forward and screamed.<\/p>\n

Asked about that vigorous celebration, Williams explained that she feels as if \u201cevery match counts like several matches\u201d because she is trying to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just something that I was really excited about,\u201d she said, before referring to herself in the third person: \u201cIt\u2019s Serena, I always get excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds like something an opponent might say.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States’ Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Italy’s Giulia Gatto-Monticone in a Women’s singles match during day two of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 2, 2019. (AP Photo\/Ben Curtis)AP | AP WIMBLEDON, England \u2014 Used to be that players would dread the prospect of facing Serena Williams, especially at Wimbledon. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 00:23:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}