Serena Williams pinpoints key difference between men's & women's tennis and how it impacted her mentality of never letting go

Serena Williams is widely considered as one of the best tennis players of all time and part of that simply stems from her being a player who never gave up on a match. It didn't matter how unlikely a comeback seemed, Williams was always determined to give it her all.

During a recent interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Williams was asked how she approached matches during her playing days. After being asked whether she ever let sets go, the American dismissed that suggestion, explaining that she never did that.

"I've never said that. No. Never. Not one day in my life. If I were a guy and I was playing in the men's Tour, I think there is more opportunity because they play more sets. It makes sense for them to say that and also more strategically, it makes a lot of sense."

Williams then went on to highlight the difference between men's and women's tennis through the format, explaining that women simply don't have the luxury of thinking like that. According to Williams, it's not very feasible physically to do it but also playing in a best of three format makes it very hard to gamble like that.

Every game and every set counts, so giving up on a set was simply never something she had as part of her own tactical approach to the game. As she noted above, that's not really true for men's tennis where some players have been known to ramp up as the match went along, most famously Novak Djokovic, who has a habit of starting matches slow.

"For women, we play the best two out of three sets, so physically we can't do that. It's also very difficult to come back from that," Serena Williams said.

---

Serena Williams on never giving up as father's legacy

For a good part of her early life, Serena Williams was coached by her father Richard Williams, whose life story was immortalized in a film called King Richard.

In the same interview, Williams spoke about how her father instilled that "never give up" attitude that became a defining trait of hers during her playing days and continues to be these days away from the courts.

"In tennis it's never over until you're sharing the hand. Sometimes even when I'm shaking the hand I'm like is it really over. You never give up. It's so cliche but I grew up with my father telling me never give up but it's like you just don't stop. You keep going and you go some more. You give it your all."

Serena Williams won 39 major titles, including 23 in singles, 14 in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles.