Serena Williams recently recounted the most heartbreaking and crushing loss of her career, which occurred at the US Open.
The 42-year-old is known for her resilience and unparalleled mental strength on the WTA Tour. She rises to the occasion when the pressure is at its highest and fights back from losing deficits in matches.
Athletes who compete at the top level, where winning becomes a habit, don't entertain defeat because of the psychological damage it can cause to their emotional well-being.
One such traumatizing experience was when Serena Williams lost in the semifinal of the 2015 US Open to Roberta Vinci in three sets, which ended her dream of completing the calendar-year Grand Slam.
In her new docuseries, In The Arena: Serena Williams, airing on ESPN+, the 23-time Grand Slam champion reflects on the devastating defeat to the Italian that many consider the upset of the 21st century.
The American, a hot favorite for the title even before a ball was struck in New York nine years ago, was expected to charge into her ninth US Open final. Beating the unseeded veteran, Vinci, who was 0-4 in their head-to-head and had not won a set in any of those meetings, seemed like a formality.
But tennis matches don't always follow the script, and even the great Serena Willaims was not immune to pressure. The former World No. 1 has explained how sports can be brutal because they don't mirror happy endings like in movies.
"It doesn't end the way it does in the movies. And, no matter how much I feel like it could and it should. No matter what I could do different, it wasn't my story. Winning is so glamorous and everyone thinks it is so amazing when you win - It is, it really is. But, the more you win the harder it becomes to lose."
Furthermore, the mother of two stated that she hasn't "moved on" from that US Open defeat to Vinci, which would have kept her hopes of emulating Steffi Graf's colossal feat from 1988 of winning all four Grand Slams in the same season.
"I don't think I was able to move on from that US Open loss. I was just so angry, and just so sad, and just so disappointed with myself. There was no one with 21 Grand Slams at the time but it was not enough for me."
It has been reported that Williams suffered from depression after that match and saw a therapist who advised her not to talk about that loss. In fact, she never played again for the remainder of the 2015 season, and her coach at the time, Patrick Mouratoglou, told ESPN she was mentally devastated.
"She was depressed... The reaction was quite strong. She was really, really affected, which I think is normal when you are Serena. She does everything with 100% of her heart, so you are more disappointed when you don’t reach your goal. Plus, she has a level of expectation that is much higher than anyone."
Remarkably, Williams bounced back the following season, reaching three Grand Slam finals. She won the 2016 Wimbledon to equal Steffi Graf's Open Era record of 22 majors.
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