Coffee wake-up call sparks Serena’s stirring recovery

Tennis: There isn’t much that Serena Williams hasn’t done on a tennis court.

And she added to her bow at the Hopman Cup in Perth yesterday when she ordered an espresso coffee midway through her match.

She had to try something after the world No 1 had lost the first set against Italian world number 12 Flavia Pennetta 6-0.

She had hit just four winners, but 12 unforced errors and won only 11 points for the set — just seven on her own serve. Pennetta claimed the set in 19 minutes. The hit of coffee helped, eventually. The winner of 18 grand slam titles fell behind 1-2 against the serve in the second set, but then lost only one more game for the match, winning 0-6 6-3 6-0.

“I am a coffee drinker and I didn’t have mine this morning and I was just feeling it,” she said. “So I had to get some coffee in me,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald

“I told them to just give me a shot of espresso. I asked them if it was legal; ‘is it illegal to have a shot of espresso?’ because I never did it before.

“I needed some espresso. I needed to wake up — the jetlag gets you all the time.”

Pennetta started to struggle with her first serve in the second set and Williams was able to pounce; she also raised her count of winners to 15.

And as her game returned, so did her smile — something she says people should get to expect in 2015.

“I have never smiled so much in a match before,” she said.

“This year my whole goal is just to have more fun. My dad says ‘Serena, you have done anything; just enjoy yourself, I promise you will play better’.

“So I said ‘Okay, I am trying to relax a bit more and play how I know I can play’.”