Tennis Today: Serena Williams reflects on US Open meltdown, and Roger Federer is in the mood for clay

Tennis365
April 5, 2019

In Tennis Today, Roger Federer discusses his reasons for returning to clay, while Serena Williams reflects on her US Open final meltdown.

What’s on the site
It may only be April, but the tennis season has already thrown up some tremendous stories! Here, we run through the best of them.

Meanwhile, yesterday marked the fourth anniversary since Serena Williams hit a little-known milestone that cemented her greatness – and we have a T365 Recall to tell you all about it.

Could you identify ATP players by their grunt alone? Well, that;s exactly what the players were asked to do with a very mixed set of results!

And if you’re a fan of five-set tennis, then the ITF have delivered you a crushing blow with a tweak to the format at the Olympic Games, starting in Tokyo next year.

What’s in the news
“[I was] literally just back from having the baby. looking back, I don’t know how I did that,” she said.

“And I had the audacity to be upset when I didn’t win. I’m like ‘why am I angry this is beyond amazing’.

“Obviously Grand Slams are most important to me, I was really close last year, so close.”

Meanwhile, Roger Federer has been explaining his decision to return to clay this season, saying he is just ‘in the mood’ for it.

“I think the decision was based purely on, I would like to play the clay again,” he said.

“I think after not playing for two years, also missing the French three years ago because of injury, the team understood that I was in the mood to do it again. I did grow up on clay, after all.

“I felt like my body is strong enough again to do the surface changes from hard to clay to grass to hard again.
“In the past I felt different Quite honestly, I was also happy to take two, three months away from the game, enjoy family, enjoy being away with my friends.”

What’s on social media
Rather ominously for the rest of the ATP Tour, Rafael Nadal is back on clay again…

View this post on Instagram

Rafa practicing 😍😍 📷: @rafanadalacademy

A post shared by 🎾 Vamos Rafa 🎾 (@rafael_nadal_parera_) on Apr 3, 2019 at 10:16pm PDT

Meeting Grigor Dimitrov appears to be an absolutely exhausting experience.

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Didn’t even break a sweat 👀 @grigordimitrov

A post shared by Kyle Edmund (@kyle.edmund) on Apr 4, 2019 at 2:12am PDT

‘

Gustavo Kuerten was in a #tbt kind of a mood.

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TBT com os Irmãos Kuerten! 😃✌🏻❣ #brothers #família #tbt

A post shared by Gustavo Kuerten (@gugakuerten) on Apr 4, 2019 at 9:48am PDT

And Roland Garros began to ready itself…

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Clay season is here ! ❤️🎾 Rendez-vous à Roland-Garros ! 🔜 #RG19 📸 @chrisguibbaud / FFT, april 2018

A post shared by Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) on Apr 4, 2019 at 8:12am PDT