Wimbledon Media Day: Serena is out of the office, Jabeur learning from experience

LONDON, U.K. -- WTA Insider rounds up the highlights from Media Day at Wimbledon, where Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur, and Simona Halep spoke to the press on the eve of The Championships.

Wimbledon 2022 Preview:

• Draws, dates, prize money and everything you need to know
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• Hontama, Chwalinska lead list of Grand Slam debuts

Serena Williams is out of the office

It might have been a year since Serena last set foot on a tennis court, but the 23-time Grand Slam champion's off-court projects have been prospering. Family biopic King Richard, on which Serena's sister Isha Price served as executive producer, was released in autumn 2021 to critical acclaim; in March, Serena and Venus attended the Oscars, where Will Smith won Best Actor for his role as their father Richard.

Meanwhile, it was announced that Serena Ventures, her early-stage venture capital firm, had raised an inaugural fund of $111 million that she intended to invest in founders with diverse perspectives.

"A part of me feels like that is a little bit more of my life now than tournaments," Serena said. "When you do have a venture company, you do have to go all in. It definitely takes literally all my extra time. And it's fun. I'm currently out of office for the next few weeks, so if you email me, you'll get the nice 'out of office' reply. Everyone knows that I'll be back in a few weeks."

For now, Serena has unfinished business on Centre Court, where she sustained the hamstring injury that forced her to retire against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round last year. The seven-time Wimbledon champion has already practised there this year.

"It was good for me to get that out of my system because the last moment I had on Centre Court was probably not my best moment," she said. "Wimbledon was tough last year. I felt like last year was tough ... I didn't retire. I just needed to heal physically, mentally."

Rejuvenated and "more prepared than I thought I would be" after reaching the Eastbourne doubles semifinals with Ons Jabeur last week, Serena was also embracing another significant change. For the first time in over a decade, she will start Wimbledon without former coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

"Oh, my," she responded when asked how that felt. "I didn't even think about it. I don't know. It feels good. I'm having a wonderful time here. And I just didn't even think about it."

Fuelled by current affairs, Gauff calls for change

For Coco Gauff, using her platform to speak up for what she believes in has always been fundamental. On the way to the Roland Garros final last month, the 18-year-old responded to the Uvalde school shooting by writing "Peace. End gun violence" on the on-court camera.

Now, Gauff is calling for change after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and trigger a ban on abortion in several states.

"I'm obviously disappointed about the decision," she said. "Obviously I feel bad for future women and women now, but I also feel bad for those who protested for this [and] are alive to see that decision to be reversed.

"From my reading, researching ... having this decision reversed, I feel like we're almost going backwards. Not only does this decision [reverse] reproductive rights, I feel like it also puts a lead-way into maybe reversing other things that people in the past worked so hard [for].

"But I still want to encourage people to use their voice and not feel too discouraged about this because we can definitely make a change, and hopefully change will happen."

Gauff herself says that, far from distracting her, injustice in the world only motivates her.

"I definitely don't think it affects my performance. I feel like it fuels me more because I know the more I win, the later I get into tournaments, the more people are watching, the more people that can hear my message. I feel like I use that as fuel to do better."

Jabeur learning from Roland Garros disappointment

Ons Jabeur is in familiar territory. For the second major in a row, she comes in as a title favourite fresh off a title. But last month, she couldn't translate that into the result she wanted at Roland Garros, instead crashing out to Magda Linette in the first round.

"Going to the French Open, I really felt that pressure of everybody expecting me to do well," she said. "I wasn't used to that. I was just an invisible player going to Grand Slams, doing well sometimes.

"But, I tried to learn from that, not overplay, not play a lot of matches on grass, just prepare myself for the main goal."

Withdrawing from the Eastbourne doubles semifinals due to a knee injury was a precautionary part of this approach, said Jabeur, and reflecting on her experience in Paris had only made her more optimistic.

"The good thing is I keep positive. I always say something bad happens because there is a great thing coming. I believe there is still great things coming for me.

"I feel like I want those things to happen so I can learn. Maybe sometimes I need to learn the hard way. It is what it is. I'm not going to start crying about the past or whatever happened. For sure it happened for a reason. Maybe I wasn't prepared enough. Maybe I didn't do something good enough. But I try to do everything 100%. It didn't go well for the French Open. Maybe something big is happening here."

Halep playing with no regrets

2019 Champion Simona Halep says she's fit and ready to get her campaign underway on Tuesday against Karolina Muchova. The former No.1 has been unable to play at Wimbledon since her title run due to injury and was forced to withdraw from the Bad Homburg semifinals due to a stiff neck. 

"I feel confident," Halep said. "I had good matches last week on grass. But on grass you never know. So I'm just looking forward for every day I practice here to get in shape, to get the feeling of the court. Now I have a connection with the court because in 2019 I played really well. So I have great memories."

The Romanian is focused on managing her expectations and pressure at Wimbledon. There were lessons to be learned from Roland Garros, where she confessed to suffering a panic attack on court during her second-round loss to Zheng Qinwen. 

"If I'm forced to stop tomorrow, I am very satisfied with everything I've done [in my career],' Halep said. "But I don't want to stop. I'm not thinking about that. I feel like I can improve more. I can be a better person, a better player on court, so I'm looking forward to do that.

"But with all the results that I've done lately in those 10 years almost, I'm very satisfied and happy with the way I've been."