Tennis royalty Serena Williams was asked if she was sensitive to changes in her racket specifications — like does a gram or two of added (or subtracted) weight, or an extra couple degrees of tension in the strings make a difference to her?
Most tennis pros are enormously exacting in these matters, looking for every edge. And like a painter looking at a color palette, a tennis pro can usually discern very minor distinctions in racket specs that would go unnoticed by even the most ardent amateur player.
But Serena Williams? She doesn’t much notice the string tension or gauge (the thickness of the strings) — or bother about the racket weight, etc. She just plays her best with whatever racket she has in her hand. In other words, Williams has no pretensions about tensions.
Why — when Djokovic, Federer and company are very particular — is Serena so blasé about such matters? Because she’s from Compton. As Williams tells tennis OG Billie Jean King in the Wilson video above, “For me to notice a difference it must be a real difference,” Williams says. “I don’t feel anything. Every time I try to feel something I go back and I say, ‘Serena, you’re from Compton.'”
“Compton?” King asks, “Why do you say that (to yourself)?”
Williams, who knows her roots are a large part of the essence of her success, replies: “When I think of all we had to go through. And I think of the courts (in Compton). And I think of the dead balls. And I just don’t feel anything, I literally don’t feel anything. But when I do feel something I always look at my hitter or my coach and I say ‘something‘s off. Because if I’m feeling it then something’s way off.'”
