Serena Williams backed to make retirement U-turn – ‘I think deep down it really annoys her’

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Serena Williams behind a Serena sign

Serena Williams will be “really annoyed” by the fact that she came so close to regaining some form before she retired and it could inspire her to make a comeback, according to former world No 2 Tommy Haas.

After spending a year on the sidelines due to injury and a lack of desire to return to action, Williams eventually decided to give it another go as she made her singles comeback at Wimbledon this year, losing in three sets in the opening round.

The 23-time Grand Slam winner then announced that she would “evolve away” from tennis after the US Open and she played two events before the season-ending hard-court Grand Slam, losing in the second round of the Canadian Open and first round of the Cincinnati Masters.

At the US Open she produced two brilliant wins in the first two rounds – including a three-set win over second seed Anett Konteveit – before falling in three sets to Ajla Tomljanovic with many believing the defeat signaled the end of her professional tennis career.

Williams, though, has thrown several hints since that match that she could follow in NFL superstar Tom Brady’s footsteps and mount a comeback.

“Tom Brady started an amazing trend. That’s what I want to say,” she joked during an interview The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Four-time Grand Slam winner Haas also has a hunch that we could see the former world No 1 return to action at some point, but he admits it depends on the 41-year-old’s other commitments and whether or not she wants to put herself through the “torture” again.

“Serena had an incredible, long and strong career,” he said on Eurosport Germany’s tennis podcast Das Gelbe vom Ball.

“But I have the feeling that she is going to come back and say, ‘I’m going to play one more time’. She came so close to playing really well again and going far, so I think deep down it really annoys her.

“She might really be thinking about whether she wants to try again. I may be wrong because I’m not that close [to her].

“It will mostly depend on how it looks mentally, how she feels physically and whether she has the desire to torture herself like that again after achieving so much.

“Serena also does a lot of things off the court and is a mother.”

READ MORE: Former world No 1 writes off Serena Williams return

Serena Williams Tommy Haas

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