What's eating Serena Grape? Williams WANTS to be written off.

She needs to be tested from the off

Yesterday, Victoria Azarenka claimed the Cincinnati Open with a three sets win over Serena Williams. Many will have gone into raptures and are already writing Williams off for the upcoming US Open, but the fact remains that yesterday she was operating in 2nd gear. There's something up with her. Something deeper that we are not seeing. She trounced Azarenka in the first set and everything seemed to be rosy in the garden. But these days, it's almost as if everything is below her, almost as if she feels elevated above these minions at the other side of the net and any tournament which isn't a major.

Williams' demeanor has long been analyzed; this is nothing new. But yesterday I thought she displayed more signs of contempt to anything than ever before. She has always had this body language of complete superiority and dominance but after the first set in the final, it was as if she completely shut down thinking to herself that the whole show is several levels below what she can be bothered with.

I wouldn't go as far to say that she threw the match, but it was as if she is trying these days to engineer matches to get her juices going. It wasn't until late in the third set when she started to show some aggression and some emotion. She seemed more than happy in this environment when things were on the edge and the match in the balance. She then, of course, had a chance to win the whole thing but messed up on her match points rather surprisingly. But even then, I got the feeling that the satisfaction came out of being tested right to the end rather than the result itself (which I don't believe ultimately bothered her).

So what is the problem with Serena? Firstly, there has to be some psychological issues going on with all the off court stories. The whole Sharapova/Dimitrov/Williams thing and her news gaffe has made things more interesting off the court lately. But apart from any of this, I think Williams needs a challenge and I think Williams knows that she is just too damn good 99% of the time. Now, whereas someone like a Pete Sampras would revel in this environment, this is simply not good enough for Serena. Her character is completely different I believe, much more complex. Her satisfaction these days isn't from simply winning; it's from being written off from tournament to tournament, match to match and from game to game. For her, the enjoyment is the coming back and proving people wrong.

So, at least on a subconscious level does she engineer situations? I think yes. I think she knows that the only way she can get a game on this tour is for her to drop several gears. Now, this may not simply be a case of losing on purpose; far from it. But certainly she goes into ultra dismissive mode of her opponent, barely bothers to run, goes all out for everything from every angle, and cuts down on her footwork by around a thousand fold. Now that she has this loss out of her system, this may be the spark she needs to go and romp the US Open, with critics ready to suggest that she is losing her touch. This is what gets the juices flowing for Serena. Remember, nobody beats Serena, it's just that she chooses to lose it.