Venus Williams, through the Instagram handle of her athleisure brand, interacted with her fans in a question and answer session.One question in particular caught the attention of her followers, when a user asked the US tennis legend if she preferred a one-handed or two-handed backhand.Venus, without hesitation, replied: “Two-handed, baby.
It’s more versatile than one-handed in my (expert) opinion.”One of the last tennis players to effectively play the one-handed backhand was Roger Federer, but his shot was snubbed by the eldest of the Williams sisters.Modern tennis sees the vast majority of its interpreters performing the two-handed backhand: only a few bulwarks of the Old Gen (like Stan Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet) or a few new talents (like Lorenzo Musetti) also use the old-style one-handed backhand.
Venus Williams refuses to shake hands with the umpire at Wimbledon
Venus had to say goodbye to Wimbledon in the first round, after the loss in straight sets against Elina Svitolina.
The legendary American champion led 2-0, but a fall and subsequent injury compromised her matches.At the end of the match, Venus got angry with thechair umpire, after she lost the match on a questionable call from Hawkeye.The five-time Wimbledon champion refused to shake umpire Marija Cicak’s hand, following her loss.At match point Elina Svitolina shot wide of her.
But challenge revealed that Svitolina’s ball had indeed taken the line and the umpire, by overruling, ended the match.Venus, incredulous, expected to repeat the point, disliking the umpire’s decision and refusing to shake hands.She said after the match in the press conference: “I didn’t completely agree with the call, it was just that kind of day.The grass is going to be inherently slippery.
You’re going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me. I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it, then I got killed by Grass.It’s not funny right now. I felt like I was in great shape going into this tournament and in great shape going into the match.It’s all very shocking at the time.
This is the sport. I hope I can figure out what’s going on with my knee and move on.I need to figure out my next plan. I’m in a bit of shock right now. I just can’t believe this happened. It’s, like, bizarre.I don’t know. I’m still processing it at the moment.
I think what makes it difficult to process this is that I’ve had so many injuries. I haven’t been on the tour for quite a while.This is not what I want for myself. I haven’t done anything wrong.I just went for the ball. This sort of thing is hard to process emotionally, mentally and physically on the court. I have dealt with many injuries and won many games injured. It’s almost my specialty. I couldn’t figure it out today.”
