Wimbledon 2019: Serena Williams and her all-consuming aura of intimidation are set to take over SW19 again

The first match on Court 1 on Saturday was, on paper, a contest between two players. But in reality, it was between three – Serena Williams, Julia Goerges and The Aura.

When Serena steps on the court, it’s not just her serve and the forehand that the opponent has to battle against. There are other elements too that come along with the package, the weight of which often play a crucial role in the result. And I’m not talking about her history of accomplishments or list of titles here; I’m talking about the energy that accompanies Serena in a physical, tangible form.

That energy was evident to everyone on Court 1 right from the start of the match. Serena lost the first point to a backhand error, but proceeded to hammer down two big serves to establish control. She was stone-faced in those early moments, but her sense of ownership of the court was unmistakable; we knew right then that this was going to be an exceptionally tough day for Goerges.

To the German’s credit, she hung in there as gamely and as long as she could. After going down three break points in the second game, she found her best serves and forehands to hold off Serena and stay on level terms. But that just brought out a different – and scarier – dimension of The Aura.

Aware that she had a challenge on her hands, Serena got out of autopilot mode and started making it a street fight. Her grunts became louder and fiercer, reverberating ominously throughout the stadium and rivaling the ‘crack’ of her shots in decibel level.

I know what you’re thinking: practically every WTA player grunts. But does anybody do it quite like Serena? With a lower, considerably more guttural pitch, Serena’s grunt doesn’t sound like she is expending a lot of energy or struggling to hit the ball with force. Instead, it sounds like she is commanding everyone around her to do her bidding.

Her grunt is also usually accompanied by a disdainful treatment of anything that is remotely in the vicinity of the middle of the court. You can almost feel the injection of pace when she gets a short-ish ball and unloads simultaneously on a forehand and a grunt; it is enough to make anyone sitting in the stands recoil.

More importantly, it forces the opponent to do everything in her power to stay away from the middle of the court – which naturally makes them overhit. We often criticise players who make a lot of unforced errors against Serena, because we believe Serena’s defence is not good enough to justify that. What we forget is that the fear of being punished on a short ball can make even the most consistent of players lose their bearings.

The break of serve didn’t take long to arrive in the first set, despite Goerges not doing much wrong. But Serena was in no mood to let up even when she had the lead. After one especially thunderous service winner at 4-2, her grunt extended into a cry of celebration, combining to form a ferocious sound that went something like “Aaahaaa!”

That kind of intimidation has little to do with 23 Grand Slams or 300 weeks as World No 1; it’s just a very Serena way of doing things. Even if she had no accomplishments to her name, the way she carried herself on the court on Sunday — the grunt, the deliberate strut, the refusal to look anywhere but inward in times of stress — would have left no one in any doubt who the boss on the court was.

The second set was a little closer, but only because Serena took longer to get the break; on her own serve she was practically untouchable. In fact, so dominant was her first serve that at 1-1 Goerges challenged a bullet down the T, seemingly out of disbelief, only for the replay to show that it hadn’t even touched the line.

The futility of her challenge made Goerges smile, and Serena cracked a smile in return. It was a surprising and rare break from Serena’s intensity, but it didn’t last long. The very next point her grunt was out in full force again, accompanied by a whip-crack of a forehand winner. The Aura was back.

The game that brought the break in the second set, with Goerges serving at 2-2, was perhaps the most entertaining of the day. Goerges repeatedly fought off Serena’s attacks with a mix of good serving and bold forehands, but couldn’t find a way to seal the deal whenever she had game point. Ultimately, the pressure was too much and she gave in – but not before earning the respect of everyone in attendance.

Serena served it out without any hiccups, and is now into the second week of Wimbledon for what seems like the millionth time. She seems to be getting better with each match too, which has to be considered a sign of worry by the rest of the field. Is Serena peaking at the right time?

“Yeah, I think I play pretty good when I’m calm, but also super intense, just finding the balance in between there,” she said after the match. “So it’s a hard balance to find because sometimes when I’m too calm, I don’t have enough energy. Still trying to find that balance.”

We know that ever since coming back to the tour from childbirth, she has failed to maintain the right balance over an entire tournament. In fact, just in her second round match against Kaja Juvan, Serena struggled mightily to get her game to behave. Her intensity can make her go down on herself sometimes; when she is sulking at her mistimed shots and looking like she’s in pain rather than command, things tend to go from bad to worse and her intimidation factor takes a backseat.

It remains to be seen whether she will continue playing with the right kind of energy over the next week. But if she does, you know that she’ll be hard to stop. Defeating Serena alone is one thing; defeating Serena AND The Aura is another thing entirely.