New York — Thanks to Serena Williams, the US Open will not be like any other.
Whether it is actually the final event in her long and influential playing career – and in professional tennis, perhaps more than any other sport, farewell sometimes ends up seeing you again – the two – will be the hard-court tournament that begins on Monday at Flushing Meadows. The Grand Slam 2022 calendar concludes, first and foremost, about Williams.
As long as you stay in the field, at least. Williams faces Danka Kovinic, 27, of Montenegro, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the first round of singles Monday night and also entered into doubles with her sister Venus.
The focus on Williams is fitting, because a lot of the past two decades, and then some tennis, in general, and at the US Open, in particular, has been around Williams, who turns 41 next month. There is that unmistakable skill with a racket in hand and an unparalleled rush to be the best that has led to 23 major singles championships, the number one ranking and an Olympic gold medal, and it is this superior quality that demands attention that has made her equally famous as a superstar athlete.
“From my point of view, she revolutionized tennis,” said Chris Evert, who won 18 major championships in the 1970s and 1980s. “It revolutionized the power in the game. And I feel like it really inspired women of color, because we’ve seen so many women of color playing the game. And I think it changed the way women compete, as far as it’s okay to be fierce, passionate, frank, emotional out there on the court, And I’m still a woman.”
The ways in which Williams — and certainly the 42-year-old Venus, holder of seven singles slam titles and Serena’s partner in 14 major doubles titles — have changed the game are diverse, multifaceted, and go beyond the way she played it. Fast serve and powerful ground kicks have prompted, or even forced, other players to try to match this technique or figure out how to try to counter it.
“There was something inside of them,” said Rick McKee, the tennis coach who worked with the Williams sisters in the early 1990s, before they became teenagers. “When we competed or did competitive training, I saw something I had never seen. They tried so hard to get to the ball, they almost fell. Now you can try hard; it doesn’t mean you will be a world champion. But it was just another level.”
Williams said she doesn’t know how to define her legacy, but she’s all over it, whether embodied by the players who owe her an inspiration, like four-time main champion Naomi Osaka or French Open runner-up Coco Gauff, or in the rule changes that obviously, or at least Most likely, she is a product of episodes in which she participated.
“Her legacy is really vast, to the point where you can’t even describe it in words. She has changed the sport so much. She has introduced people who had never heard of tennis into the sport. I think I am the product of what she ended up being. I wouldn’t be here without Serena, Venus, and her entire family. I am grateful. very much to her,” Osaka said. “I was also trying to figure out how to sum it up in words. I honestly think it’s the biggest strength in the sport.”
A line can be drawn to this year’s decision by the US Tennis Association to allow women’s and men’s in-match training at a Grand Slam for the first time from the chaotic 2018 US Open final that Williams ended up in play. After being warned about taking instructions from her then coach, Patrick Muratoglu, during the loss to Osaka.
The prevalence of electronic calls, to the point where there are no line umpires in US Open matches anymore, can be traced back to the 2004 quarter-final match at Flushing Meadows where multiple wrongful judgments were made against Williams during the loss to Jennifer Capriati.
At the US Open alone, there were other showdowns with officials (who could forget the 2009 semi-final foot mistake against Kim Clijsters), groundbreaking fashion choices (the catsuit in 2002; knee-high boots two years later) and plenty of victories. , dating back to 1999, when 17-year-old Williams defeated Martina Hingis for her first Grand Slam title.
So Ashe Stadium provides a fitting backdrop for a farewell, though Williams hasn’t explicitly said she won’t compete again after the US Open while telling the world through an article in Vogue that she’s ready to start “evolving away from tennis” to focus on having a baby. Than is pursuing her business interests.
Every time you step in court in New York, it will be treated as if it was the last time. Even her training sessions were attended by throngs of fans in the days leading up to the start of training.
“Who knows if there will be another Serena again? I doubt it,” said Kovinic, who is ranked 80th this week and has not made it past the third round at a grand slam. “I am honored to have this opportunity to play it.”
It will only be Williams’ fifth singles match in the past 12 months, as the American was out of the tour after sustaining a first-round injury at Wimbledon last year until losing in the first round there this year. Since returning from that gap, Williams has been 1-3, including back-to-back defeats to Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic and 2021 US Open champion Emma Radocano in her last two rounds.
There was a time – not all that time, in the scheme of things – that Williams was considered the favorite in every game and in every championship, especially in the sport’s four most important events.
“I say: Don’t underestimate it,” said Everett, an ESPN analyst. “But the problem is on the field. The problem is everyone else is getting better too. … There are a lot of good players now who, No. 1, are not afraid of her; and No. 2, they know she’s not at her best at the moment; and No. 3, You want to beat it.”
Two days before losing to Bencic in Toronto, and one day before revealing her thoughts on retirement (a word she said she doesn’t like), Williams said at a press conference, “I can’t do this forever.”
This is true of course. However, no one expects that this will be the last time the world will hear about it, even if there are no matches left to play.
“At the end of the day, tennis has been her biggest stage, but I think her greatest work is yet to come,” said McKee, a Williams coach for years.
Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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