Serena Williams in 2007

When Serena Williams and her older sister Venus burst on the professional tennis scene in the late 1990s, it was as if an energy field of immense proportions was released on the sport. Born in MI in Sept. 1981 but raised in Compton, CA, Serena brought with her the grit, toughness, raw power, determination to succeed and enormous athleticism which, to the chagrin of white racists, made her and her sister the talk of the tennis-loving public from the lily-white country clubs throughout the land to the rough and tumble public courts in urban America. The world she inhabited for the first decade or more of her life was not one that those who watched her play in later years will ever really understand; indeed, her older sister was killed in a drive-by shooting in Compton in Sept. 2003. But she learned to inhabit a new world once the tennis victories came her way. Her first Grand Slam title was in 1999--when she won the US Open. The twelve months between French Open 2002- and Australian Open 2003 saw an unprecedented event. Not only did Serena win all four titles, making her the sixth woman in history to do so in one year's time, but she beat her sister Venus in all four finals--certainly a first. I recall those days where proud papa Richard was shown by cameras after practically every shot. Speculation abounded whether he had told one of the sisters (Venus) to lose. In those days tennis aficionados were willing to concede more power to Richard Williams than to President George W. Bush. But, as often is the case, subsequent years saw injuries plague Serena, though she won the Australian Open in 2005. Now, she has returned to the courts, and, unranked (or, better said, ranked 91st in the world at the end of 2006), has powered her way to the Semifinals of the 2007 Australian Open--arguably her most successful venue.

2007 Impressions of Serena

There is so much one could see by watching her defeat, rather convincingly, Jelena Jancovic of Serbia on Saturday (1/19) and, much less convincingly, Shahar Peer or Israel tonight (1/23 in the afternoon in Australia). When she is "on," with her powerful serve, her rocket-like forehand, her laser-like backhand and her dominating and intimidating presence, one can imagine that no one could touch her. She strides across the court with a combination of attitude and desire that communicates to any who watch that if the mercury in Melbourne weren't sitting at 100 degrees, she could by force of will create such a climate on the court.

She is so good that she can even win when she looks so bad. That is, in the Peer match, just completed, she made about 50 unforced errors. At times her forehand looked like it was attached to a loose cannon that was spraying ordnance all over the terrain in front of it, with no control at all. At times her energy level seemed to be akin to a child unwillingly waking up from sleep after a long nap. But, when she was "on," either because she realized that she might lose the match or because things were just "flowing" for her, she bore down on the very good Peer with such power that the 19 year-old Israeli was forced into her own inexplicable errors. Thus the match was occasionally a demonstration of power tennis at its best, though it was often punctuated with cries of anguish as one or the other player hit a ball wide or into the net.

It is not hard to tell that Serena has all the gifts, from the physical abilities to mental determination, to become a winner again. But, she is fighting lots of things, not least of which appears to be some tentativeness with her knee and some extra weight around the middle. Her steatopygian form (sorry, not in the OED) gives the impression that she would be hard-pressed to keep up with a lithe 20 year-old, whom she might meet in the semis or, if she makes it that far, the finals. But there is no doubt that she has the heart of a lion, and if heart were the measure of the athlete, she would without question be on the victor's stand.

Conclusion

I think Serena Williams is a remarkable woman, a remarkable tennis player and a remarkable American. One look at her face when she has won a point captures all the anguished history, pain, hope and dreams of African-Americans in this land. To have "made it" in a traditional white person's sport with such an exclamation mark is inconceivable to those of us who struggle just to try not to be embarrassed as we "compete" in the majority culture. Whether she is going to experience a renascence of her career through the 2007 Australian Open or whether she will be like a star that shoots its light dimly the second time and then is seen no more, is still up in the air. No doubt lucrative contracts await her in the worlds of fashion and movies. But I would love to see her go out at the top of her game, beating all comers, one last time. There is something so incredibly satisfying in concluding one's career at the top of the world.

2393