Coming out of a tough area of LA, Serena Williams isn’t your ordinary tennis champion. Sheer grit has seen her overcome huge obstacles to reclaim the world’s number one ranking. We find out what makes the superstar tick.
Two years ago, Serena Williams let out a mighty yelp. She was playing in the Australian Open, she was slow, overweight and had sunk to 81st in the world rankings. And she had just about had enough. At that moment, it was impossible to know whether she’d had enough of success or of failing.
The yelp proved to be a turning point. Match by match, she remade herself. She slapped her thighs, swore at herself and forced herself on. Astonishingly, she reached the final to play the in-form Maria Sharapova.
So, that was that. After all, she’d played hardly any match tennis for two years and you couldn’t win a major on willpower alone. Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash had called Serena “deluded” when she said she planned to be number one again.
Serena did not simply beat Sharapova that day, she annihilated her. It was one of the most unlikely victories the sport has seen. By the end, the woman who could barely stretch for a ball in her first match was lithe, fast, subtle and brutal.
After the match, she rolled on her back, legs kicking in the air like a puppy. She bowed and blew kisses, mouthed, “Oh my God!” and whooped and whooped again. Then she made a thank-you speech that said everything you needed to know about the rise and fall of Serena Jameka Williams.
“I would like to dedicate this win to my sister, who’s not here. Her name is Yetunde. I just love her so much … So, thanks, Tunde,” she said, before breaking down in tears. Tunde, her eldest sister, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Compton, Los Angeles, in 2003.
In September this year, Serena Williams completed what may well be regarded as world tennis’ most remarkable comeback, when, at a tournament in Japan, she overtook Russian Dinara Safina to reclaim the world number one ranking.
It’s a resurrection of Lazarus proportions, though not without bumps along the way, such as Serena’s extraordinary outburst at the US Open earlier that same month, when, in a semi-final against Belgian Kim Clijsters, she abused a line official, screaming that “if I could, I’d take this f—ing ball and shove it down your f—ing throat.”
The incident showed the world that serenity is a sometimes elusive state for Serena and gave a glimpse of the high pressure and deep emotions that simmer below the surface.
In 2003, Serena Williams became only the fifth woman in history to hold all four majors simultaneously. Today, she has reclaimed two of them, winning the 2009 Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, and, for good measure, taking the doubles titles in Melbourne and London with sister Venus, for the second successive year.
It’s an extraordinary story, but not one that comes on its own. It’s also the story of her sister, Venus, and of the whole Williams clan, and it belongs as much to myth and marketing as to fact.
Your say: What do you think of the Williams sisters? Do you think Serena is a good role model? Does it matter? Share your thoughts below…
Read more about Serena in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly out now with Julie Goodwin on the cover.
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