Rennae Stubbs is one of the luckiest people in the tennis world who got the front seat to witness Serena Williams “evolving away” from the racquet sport in 2022. Stubbs joined her team as a coach to help Serena Williams end her career with flying colors. However, Williams was defeated by Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović in the third round of the 2022 US Open. Despite, this sad ending to a 27-year-long illustrious career, there were a few moments from this tournament that are still well embarked in the memories of Rennae Stubbs. 

The 53-year-old Aussie legend recently shared one of those stories from her memorable partnership with the 23-time Grand Slam champion. During the recent episode of the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, she revealed an incident when she found Serena Williams in some real distress. She highlighted a moment from Williams’ second-round match against Anett Kontaveit at the 2022 US Open. Although Serena won the match 7-6(4),2-6,6-2, there were a few nervy moments just before the start of that epic clash. What was it?

Speaking on that incident, Rennae Stubbs revealed, “Serena had a really tough, warm-up before the second round of the US Open, She came late because the traffic was really bad…It took longer than expected and she rushed onto the practice court. She hadn’t done her proper stretching. She was just stressed. It was a big match for her playing against Kontaveit who was at that time number 2 player in the world.” Stubbs further went on to speak about how even her hitting partner was going through a tough during that moment.

Highlighting that nervy moments just ahead of the match, Stubbs added, “Her hitting partner was having a bad day as well. Normally, he hits the ball perfectly for her. He was probably nervous and he could probably feel the tension.” After that, she spoke about how Serena Williams then hit one ball on the bottom of the net on purpose. After seeing this, Rennae Stubbs was like, “OMG, like this is okay, if I’m really coaching and if can make a difference here, I need to step in here.“

Nowadays, we see players yelling at their boxes asking for advice from their coaches. Perhaps by highlighting these things, Stubbs also wanted to highlight how important it is for the coaches to know when to step in certain situations. Stubbs didn’t coach Williams for too long but she has been a big admirer of this tennis icon for a very long time. Which, according to her is the “greatest match” that she has ever seen featuring Serena Williams? Well, in a recent interview, she revealed that Williams’ victory over Maria Sharapova at the 2012 Olympics stands tall among the rest according to her! Do you know, Stubbs once even made a big mistake that led her to receive a stern warning from Serena Williams?

Rennae Stubbs reveals the big mistake which she committed with Serena Williams

In May 2024, Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs on NBC Sports. During that interview, Stubbs brought up whether players like to know their draw ahead of a tournament or not. Like, for example, she said Jessica Pegula had no issues looking at the whole draw before the start of the tournaments. However, it wasn’t the same for someone like Serena Williams!

Speaking on that topic she said, “I was a player who did not want to see any parts of the draw at a Grand Slam…Whereas Serena, if you told her who she was playing too early in a tournament she would never talk to you again. I made that mistake one time, I told her who she was playing at Wimbledon. I was saying you play so and so. It was maybe Thursday before the tournament before the draw came out. She won the match and she was like, by the way, don’t you ever tell me who I’m playing in the first round too early.“

Rennae Stubbs never fails to surprise us with these little yet so interesting facts about the G.O.A.T, right? Well, talking about interesting facts, just a few days ago, she made yet another interesting comment while speaking on Serena Williams‘ incredible mentality. We all know, that Serena Williams is known for not holding a “grudge for revenge” more than anyone else in the women’s tennis world. Who’s it on the men’s side, then?

According to Stubbs, “I think on the men’s side I would say that Novak maybe.” However, she added, “But I think there was no one who held a grudge for revenge more than Serena Williams, which is one of the reasons why she was so great because she was never into complacency. It was always about, ‘it’s never going to happen again.’” Do you agree with this comment? Share your thoughts in the comment box.