In 2006, former tennis player Chris Evert wrote an open letter to Serena Williams in Tennis magazine, where she said:
Forward nine years and no one in the universe is questioning that legacy. On Saturday, Williams won her 21st Grand Slam singles title, and in the process completed the second Serena Slam – where she simultaneously holds all four Grand Slams. Her total count trails only that of Steffi Graf (22) and Margaret Court (24).
Barring injury, there is little doubt she will overtake both of them in the near future. These are not the only numbers that fans must ponder. The gap between her first Grand Slam victory, 16 years ago, and this one is the largest in the history of women’s tennis.
At 33 years and nine months, Serena became the oldest women’s tennis player to ever win a Grand Slam title, eclipsing Martina Navratilova, who won Wimbledon in 1990 when she was a month younger than Williams is now.
What keeps Serena going?
Two months short of her 34th birthday, Serena has won everything. She has now played professional tennis for twenty years. What is it that keeps her going? Steffi Graf retired at 30. Some of Serena’s toughest rivals, such as Kim Clijsters and Justin Henin, have retired twice. But Serena shows little sign of slowing down.
If anything, she might be playing the best tennis of her career. Her utter domination coupled with her longevity prompted many to declare her the greatest female tennis player of all time. Evert herself has said so, arguing that the other contender for the title, Steffi Graf, did not face the kind of tough opposition that Serena has.
Other greats of the women’s game, such as Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, have all admitted that Serena is better than them, for the game today is more competitive and intense than ever before and because Serena has already overtaken their achievements. If there’s any doubt about her place at the top, remember that it is not just stats but the narrative of an athlete’s career that provides perspective on just what she has accomplished.
The family story
Many successful tennis players have hailed from humble backgrounds, but Serena’s – and her sister Venus’s – emergence out of the Compton ghetto is especially remarkable. Compton is a crime and poverty-ridden suburb of Los Angeles, known for gang fights that routinely claims lives. Serena and Venus have spoken of how they often heard gunshots while they played tennis on Compton’s municipal courts.
It was Venus, 15 months older, who turned pro first and grabbed headlines for being a prodigy. But their father Richard Williams always said that his youngest daughter was more talented and a lot more competitive. When Venus and Serena occupied the top two spots in women’s tennis and began to face each other routinely in Grand Slam finals, their achievements broke nearly every barrier for African-Americans in their sport.
Over the years, Serena has suffered injuries and personal tragedy. In 2003 her eldest sister Yetunde was shot and killed in Compton. In 2011 Serena suffered blood clots and needed surgery for a hematoma, following which she had a drainage bag attached to her stomach and injected herself regularly with blood thinners. She was out of the game for 11 months, during which time her ranking sank to 175.
Not always loved
Being a black athlete in a sport dominated by affluent white people, Serena has had to endure racist attitudes throughout her career. In the 2001 WTA event at Indian Wells, after Venus pulled out of their semifinal with tendinitis, Serena was booed loudly in the final amidst allegations that their matches were fixed.
This led to a 14-year boycott by the sisters of the event. Serena later said about that moment, “The undercurrent of racism was painful, confusing and unfair… It has been difficult for me to forget spending hours crying in the Indian Wells locker room after winning in 2001, driving back to Los Angeles feeling as if I had lost the biggest game ever – not a mere tennis game but a bigger fight for equality.”
Despite her many wins, Serena has not been universally loved. At times in the past she has been accused of dodgy sportsmanship. In the early years she often failed to give credit to opponents when she lost. Then there were the two US Open outbursts.
In the 2009 semifinal against Kim Clijsters, she was penalized the final point for hurling expletives at the line judge who called a foot fault. In a tantrum worthy of John McEnroe, Serena shouted, “I swear to god, I’m fucking going to take this fucking ball and shove it down your fucking throat, you hear that? I swear to god.”
Two years later, against Sam Stosur in the final, she again suffered a meltdown against the chair umpire when penalised a point for intentional verbal hindrance. These tantrums, a sign of how our idols are merely human, did not endear her to the public.
Many observers have attributed much of the derision she’s received to racism. Tweets during her matches have frequently been about how masculine her body is, making fun of her thighs and weight and how toned she is. Reactions such as these, both racist and sexist, are not restricted to casual fans but to sponsors.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it is Maria Sharapova who is the highest paid female athlete in the world, with far more endorsements than Williams. Blond, white, conventionally attractive young women like Caroline Wozniacki and Eugenie Bouchard have quickly become crowd and media favourites. Serena Williams, like Martina Navratilova in the 70s and 80s, has never been America’s sweetheart despite winning every possible laurel for her country.
Making up for mistakes
But there is still time to make amends on both sides. Serena has done her part. In recent times, she has been increasingly gracious and thoughtful. Always a devout Jehovah’s Witness, she seems a lot happier and. Some have credited the change to her French coach and rumored boyfriend Patrick Mourataglou.
Their journey together began after her first round shock exit in the 2012 French Open. Since hiring Mourataglou, Serena has won two Wimbledons, three US Opens, two French Opens, one Australian Open, and an Olympic gold medal. In a statement that should surely terrify all the other players, Mourataglou said earlier this year, "I think she can improve a lot… I think her game at the net for sure can improve and the transition from the baseline to the net can be improved a lot."
There was an air of inevitability about this year’s Wimbledon final, where Serena beat young Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-4. As she lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish yet again, there were murmurs among commentators and analysts about the few records she is yet to break. What’s next, we all wondered. When asked, Mourataglou has said, "How many can she win? I don't want to give her a limit."
Serena insists she’s really relaxed now, and that she plays for the sheer joy of it, because there’s nothing left to prove. That’s an understatement. She will now head to the US hard courts as the firm favourite to win the first calendar Grand Slam since Graf did it in 1988.
But as the records keep piling up, let’s not forget that her domination coincides with an era in American history that is replete with acts of racism. Serena Williams won her sixth Wimbledon the same week that the Confederate flag came down in South Carolina. Her story transcends sport. The question to be decided in the next couple of years is not whether she’s the greatest female tennis player of all time but whether she is the greatest athlete of our time.
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"I’ve been thinking about your career, and something is troubling me… do you ever consider your place in history? Is it something you care about? In the short term you may be happy with the various things going on in your life, but I wonder whether 20 years from now you might reflect on your career and regret not putting 100 percent of yourself into tennis. Because whether you want to admit it or not, these distractions are tarnishing your legacy.”
Forward nine years and no one in the universe is questioning that legacy. On Saturday, Williams won her 21st Grand Slam singles title, and in the process completed the second Serena Slam – where she simultaneously holds all four Grand Slams. Her total count trails only that of Steffi Graf (22) and Margaret Court (24).
Barring injury, there is little doubt she will overtake both of them in the near future. These are not the only numbers that fans must ponder. The gap between her first Grand Slam victory, 16 years ago, and this one is the largest in the history of women’s tennis.
At 33 years and nine months, Serena became the oldest women’s tennis player to ever win a Grand Slam title, eclipsing Martina Navratilova, who won Wimbledon in 1990 when she was a month younger than Williams is now.
What keeps Serena going?
Two months short of her 34th birthday, Serena has won everything. She has now played professional tennis for twenty years. What is it that keeps her going? Steffi Graf retired at 30. Some of Serena’s toughest rivals, such as Kim Clijsters and Justin Henin, have retired twice. But Serena shows little sign of slowing down.
If anything, she might be playing the best tennis of her career. Her utter domination coupled with her longevity prompted many to declare her the greatest female tennis player of all time. Evert herself has said so, arguing that the other contender for the title, Steffi Graf, did not face the kind of tough opposition that Serena has.
Other greats of the women’s game, such as Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, have all admitted that Serena is better than them, for the game today is more competitive and intense than ever before and because Serena has already overtaken their achievements. If there’s any doubt about her place at the top, remember that it is not just stats but the narrative of an athlete’s career that provides perspective on just what she has accomplished.
The family story
Many successful tennis players have hailed from humble backgrounds, but Serena’s – and her sister Venus’s – emergence out of the Compton ghetto is especially remarkable. Compton is a crime and poverty-ridden suburb of Los Angeles, known for gang fights that routinely claims lives. Serena and Venus have spoken of how they often heard gunshots while they played tennis on Compton’s municipal courts.
It was Venus, 15 months older, who turned pro first and grabbed headlines for being a prodigy. But their father Richard Williams always said that his youngest daughter was more talented and a lot more competitive. When Venus and Serena occupied the top two spots in women’s tennis and began to face each other routinely in Grand Slam finals, their achievements broke nearly every barrier for African-Americans in their sport.
Over the years, Serena has suffered injuries and personal tragedy. In 2003 her eldest sister Yetunde was shot and killed in Compton. In 2011 Serena suffered blood clots and needed surgery for a hematoma, following which she had a drainage bag attached to her stomach and injected herself regularly with blood thinners. She was out of the game for 11 months, during which time her ranking sank to 175.
Not always loved
Being a black athlete in a sport dominated by affluent white people, Serena has had to endure racist attitudes throughout her career. In the 2001 WTA event at Indian Wells, after Venus pulled out of their semifinal with tendinitis, Serena was booed loudly in the final amidst allegations that their matches were fixed.
This led to a 14-year boycott by the sisters of the event. Serena later said about that moment, “The undercurrent of racism was painful, confusing and unfair… It has been difficult for me to forget spending hours crying in the Indian Wells locker room after winning in 2001, driving back to Los Angeles feeling as if I had lost the biggest game ever – not a mere tennis game but a bigger fight for equality.”
Despite her many wins, Serena has not been universally loved. At times in the past she has been accused of dodgy sportsmanship. In the early years she often failed to give credit to opponents when she lost. Then there were the two US Open outbursts.
In the 2009 semifinal against Kim Clijsters, she was penalized the final point for hurling expletives at the line judge who called a foot fault. In a tantrum worthy of John McEnroe, Serena shouted, “I swear to god, I’m fucking going to take this fucking ball and shove it down your fucking throat, you hear that? I swear to god.”
Two years later, against Sam Stosur in the final, she again suffered a meltdown against the chair umpire when penalised a point for intentional verbal hindrance. These tantrums, a sign of how our idols are merely human, did not endear her to the public.
Many observers have attributed much of the derision she’s received to racism. Tweets during her matches have frequently been about how masculine her body is, making fun of her thighs and weight and how toned she is. Reactions such as these, both racist and sexist, are not restricted to casual fans but to sponsors.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it is Maria Sharapova who is the highest paid female athlete in the world, with far more endorsements than Williams. Blond, white, conventionally attractive young women like Caroline Wozniacki and Eugenie Bouchard have quickly become crowd and media favourites. Serena Williams, like Martina Navratilova in the 70s and 80s, has never been America’s sweetheart despite winning every possible laurel for her country.
Making up for mistakes
But there is still time to make amends on both sides. Serena has done her part. In recent times, she has been increasingly gracious and thoughtful. Always a devout Jehovah’s Witness, she seems a lot happier and. Some have credited the change to her French coach and rumored boyfriend Patrick Mourataglou.
Their journey together began after her first round shock exit in the 2012 French Open. Since hiring Mourataglou, Serena has won two Wimbledons, three US Opens, two French Opens, one Australian Open, and an Olympic gold medal. In a statement that should surely terrify all the other players, Mourataglou said earlier this year, "I think she can improve a lot… I think her game at the net for sure can improve and the transition from the baseline to the net can be improved a lot."
There was an air of inevitability about this year’s Wimbledon final, where Serena beat young Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-4. As she lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish yet again, there were murmurs among commentators and analysts about the few records she is yet to break. What’s next, we all wondered. When asked, Mourataglou has said, "How many can she win? I don't want to give her a limit."
Serena insists she’s really relaxed now, and that she plays for the sheer joy of it, because there’s nothing left to prove. That’s an understatement. She will now head to the US hard courts as the firm favourite to win the first calendar Grand Slam since Graf did it in 1988.
But as the records keep piling up, let’s not forget that her domination coincides with an era in American history that is replete with acts of racism. Serena Williams won her sixth Wimbledon the same week that the Confederate flag came down in South Carolina. Her story transcends sport. The question to be decided in the next couple of years is not whether she’s the greatest female tennis player of all time but whether she is the greatest athlete of our time.
