‘It Became Impossible to Play’ – When Serena Williams Opened Up to Meghan Markle About How Her Heart-Breaking Loss to Jennifer Capriati Scripted a Revolution

Serena Williams said goodbye to her illustrious 27-year-long career this season. The record Grand Slam title holder in the Open Era has had several glorious moments on the Tour that she will cherish. But she has also been through some frustrating events that will be with her forever. One such incident happened in the year 2004.

Williams was locking horns with compatriot and fellow former world no.1 Jennifer Capriati when continuous line calls distracted her and eventually led her to a painful defeat. A few months ago, she detailed how, even though the match shattered her self-confidence; on the brighter side, the experience motivated her to push forward.

Serena Williams about the changes and how it affected her

Serena, in August, while speaking in her friend Meghan Markle’s podcast Archetypes, addressed her 2004 US Open quarterfinals match. She said, “The reason Hawk-Eye became a thing is because they were calling my balls out and they weren’t even close to the line.“

Thereafter the former World no.1 added, “In that match, I gained this fear of hitting, because every time I hit a ball they would call it out, no matter how close it was, or how far it was.“

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“It became impossible to play because they just kept calling them out,” she concluded. This defeat was her second quarterfinals dismissal as she suffered a similar fate in the French Open as well. The six times US Open champion was going through a rough patch that year. She made a comeback in Miami after recovering from a knee injury sustained in the previous year’s Wimbledon Championships and failed to defend her trophy in London against the Russian tennis star, Maria Sharapova.

Williams’ last run in the US Open

The seven-time Wimbledon champion, after making a comeback in London, decided to end her illustrious career after the US Open. She participated in the WTA 1000 events of the American swing to oil her skills for her home Grand Slam event.

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Williams, post defeats in the initial rounds in both the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Masters, entered the US Open. She got the better of her opening-round opponent in a straight sets and then took down the then WTA world no.2 Anett Kontaveit to safeguard her record. However, in the following round, the Aussie Ajla Tomljanović ended her run in the last Grand Slam tournament of her career.