She has played more than 800 tennis matches, won 18 Grand Slam tournaments and set the standard for the rest of the women’s tour for more than a decade. She is 33 years old and has made comebacks from knee injuries, a sliced tendon in her foot, a pulmonary embolism and a hematoma. She hasn’t always been No. 1 in the rankings, but she is now.
Last month in Singapore, Williams won her third consecutive WTA Finals title. She did it against the strongest field the WTA has had in years, including veteran players such as Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki, and young stars such as Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard.
Williams struggled. Her knee ached. She smashed a racket like she has never smashed a racket before. She suffered one of the most lopsided losses of her career, 6-0, 6-2 against Halep in the round-robin stage.
Then, in the event’s final against Halep, Williams showed why she has as much right to best-of-all-time acclaim as any woman ever: She responded to her earlier defeat with a 6-3, 6-0 drubbing.
“I had to play more Serena-style tennis and just do what I do best: enforce myself,” Williams said afterward.
Before they ultimately lose the battle against age, injuries, and waning desire, tennis champions usually succumb to a successor. Look at Roger Federer, who is also 33. He could finish No. 1 in the rankings this year, but hasn’t been the favorite at major tournaments for some time now because of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. It happened to Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis and Venus Williams. Even Steffi Graf, who won 22 major titles and held the No. 1 ranking for a record 377 weeks, looked like she had been eclipsed by Monica Seles, before Seles was stabbed in the back by a crazed fan in 1993.
Williams, it seems, is going to be the rare player who escapes this fate. No one has fully figured her out.
Great Post. I Love Serena
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