Serena Williams trained on the central court before the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, England, on June 24. Adam Davey / Associated Press
Having not done so for some time, Serena Williams was not in top shape for a press conference this weekend.
At his best, Williams may be the most electric speaker in the sport. It jumps between playfulness and boiling rage, often within a single question. The way she stares at the questioners makes most of them defend themselves before they say anything.
But now that she’s back at Wimbledon, after what was essentially a Saturday, she lacked that mood. Short answers. Fewer cheeks. Zero flashes of annoyance.
Then a German reporter threw her a softball ball: “What would be a good result for you?”
Williams is 40. She hasn’t played a significant singles match since hitting her thigh in this tournament last year. She’s only here because Wimbledon gave her a free pass.
“Oh, yes,” Williams said, as if waiting for this one. She closed her eyes and lowered her voice to a purr. “You know the answer to that. Come on now.”
Laughter in the room. An amused look from the star.
Then someone else followed him with the same question, asked in a slightly different way, and Williams puzzled him with the same answer: “You guys know the answer to that.”
The tone made it very clear that no one should try for a third.
Other questioners tried to direct her to Rowe against Wade and Russia’s ban. Williams passed both times. This was a lesson for her colleagues in the whole sport – there is no law that says you have to have public opinion on everything.
Finally, here was the powerful Williams we missed. Now let’s see if this dominance can be transferred to a few hundred feet on the court.
Many sports stars dominate their small section of the field, but few have controlled their entire environment the way Williams did. In the second half of her career, she often seemed to be able to beat opponents by Vulcan mixing them from a distance. The match would go their way. Williams would fix them with his gaze from a thousand yards away. And then – hurray! – will go the way of Williams.
Then the injuries started. And the disappointments in the finals of big tournaments. And the stone in her shoe, which is Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam titles (Williams is 23).
Williams is the most dominant player in women. You don’t have to understand tennis to understand this. All you need are eyes. But until the numbers fall, someone dingdong will always say, “Yes, of course, but„ “
She kept denying it, but it seemed to throw itself into Williams’ head. Her appearance was still in complete control, but her opponents were no longer afraid of her. Television operators stopped going crazy about her all the way to the matches. When they did tell Williams stories, they began to feel “back in my day.” It must be weird to write your professional work in real time while you’re still working. Here she felt compelled to start her press with “I did not retire.”
A year away would not help any of this. Nor the new position. Everyone else she plays in her two weeks here – come on now – will be tennis professionals. Performing it on tour 10 months a year, accumulating AmEx points.
Williams had been playing part-time for a while, but now she’s more of a casual worker. Amateur, even. Her regular concert is like a venture capitalist.
“I’m out of the office for the next few weeks right now,” Williams said.
Her company raised more than $ 100 million in start-up money in the spring. It’s appropriate. I mean, won’t you tell Serena Williams? And if you do, how do you plan to leave the room? She is much faster than you.
So now Williams is struggling not only with younger, probably better prepared players, with his age and lack of practice. She takes on the whole idea of playing sports to earn a living. Although she will make money here, Williams has become an amateur. Because one of the ways to define this word is “someone who does something for fun.”
Williams is currently ranked 411th in the world. She will not start climbing this ladder again. She does this because she can and why not?
If she goes through a few rounds, no one will feel weird about it. She is Serena Williams. She can still win matches with The Look.
But if she puts a real dent in this tournament, the modern game will look a little ridiculous. Everyone in it is never silent about their training routine when it is still dark, about their strength coach and about the sports psychologist who sleeps in a crib next to their bed. If the false star of the past, who trains when he wants to and enjoys a drunken night, is distorted into today, he would be avoided.
(Not that such players don’t exist yet. They just realized they shouldn’t talk about it.)
So what would you say if Williams – her life full of other responsibilities, after a serious injury and just swung a racket in anger as a doubles player about a week ago – stood out here? This would put the lie in the cult of sports performance.
When someone tried to put her in place, she was spared a first-round match against World Cup Iga Sviatek, Williams’ expression flattened: “Every game is difficult… and everyone could be attracted to me.”
There have always been a bunch of reasons to be fascinated by Williams. She shares opinions, but two things cannot be disputed – her quality and her charisma. It is forever in both cases. Its place at the top of the pyramid is already secured.
But to fly to London in June on a working holiday, as you seem to expect to win Wimbledon? How great would that be? You know the answer to that.
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