Serena Williams will find it hard to continue balancing family and tennis, says Kim Clijsters

Published 29/06/2022 at 09:31 GMT

Former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters also came back to tennis after starting a family, and therefore understands the challenges facing Serena Williams as the legendary American plots her next steps following defeat at Wimbledon. Clijsters says being away from your children is hard, but that it's long trips with plenty of matches that Williams may need to get back to her best level.

Serena Williams of The United States waves to the crowd after losing against Harmony Tan of France during their Women's Singles First Round Match on day two of The Championships Wimbledon 2022 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on June 28, 2022.

Image credit: Eurosport

Serena Williams will be thinking long and hard about how far she extends her comeback to tennis, believes ex-world No. 1 Kim Clijsters.

Williams lost to France's Harmony Tan in a dramatic three-set encounter in the first round of Wimbledon as the 23-time major champ made her long-awaited return after a year out.

It therefore wasn't the outcome Williams was looking for, and Clijsters believes that the American's solution to reach her best level again is to play more matches - which will, as a consequence, take the 40-year-old away from her young daughter, Olympia.

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Clijsters herself knows the dynamic of balancing sport and family life intimately, having returned to the sport after giving birth to a daughter in 2008, as well as making a second comeback in 2020, and thinks there are some tough decisions ahead for Williams.

Speaking to Eurosport, Clijsters said: "The hardest thing about coming back is not having enough matches under your belt. You can kind of think that you can rely on past experiences and think 'I don't need that many matches'.

"That's something that I've been used to, but once you get to a certain age and when you've been off for a little while, it's exactly those matches that you need and that becomes harder and harder to combine with your family life where you also want to spend time at home, and her daughter is getting a little bit older and building her own little social life at home, and it gets harder and harder to leave to go on those long trips.

"That's definitely what I felt like I was missing the most is having those matches in a row and week after week.

"I think it's going to take her a little while to get over a loss where she came so close, in such a big moment.

"Although she didn't play a lot of tennis, she was still very motivated to get further into the draw and she wasn't shy about sharing her goals."

Mats Wilander, in conversation with Clijsters and Barbara Schett, concurred, highlighting one area where he believes Williams is particularly lacking in match practice.

He said: "Every time I see her [Williams] play and she's in a tournament, I always say 'she can still win a Grand Slam'.

"But she needs to serve better. And I feel in the last few years she hasn't served anywhere close to how she used to serve. And that's going to be really hard when you have such a big weapon and suddenly it's not out there, you can't rely on it as much. So that needs to needs to happen.

"Playing matches is the only way where you serve under pressure. It's easy to serve in practice, but not in matches in big tournaments."

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Watch daily highlights from Wimbledon at 10pm on Eurosport 2 and discovery+ from June 27, as well as the two singles finals live on July 9 and 10.

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