Serena
Williams
at the
French
Open
last
year.
Credit...Pete
Kiehart
for The
New York
Times |
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Williams
brought
her own
distinctive
flair to
tennis,
challenging
norms
that
governed
fashion,
power,
decorum,
race and
gender.
By being
herself,
Williams’s
reach
far
exceeded
the
game.
Serena
Williams
announced
plans to
retire
after
this
year’s
U.S.
Open in
an essay
published
Tuesday.
Credit...Damon
Winter/The
New York
Times |
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Serena
Williams
Will
Retire
Tennis
Just as
She
Played —
on Her
Own
Terms
By
Kurt
Streeter
nytimes.com
She
is a
symbol.
A
persona.
An
athlete
who has
gone far
beyond
the
footsteps
of her
trailblazing
sister
and came
to rule
a
cloistered,
mostly
white
sport.
She
refuses
to stop
there.
Announcing
her
plans to
retire
from
tennis,
Serena
Williams
said on
Tuesday
that she
will
focus
her life
far
beyond
sports,
instead
prioritizing
being a
mother,
a
fashion
maker, a
venture
capitalist
and much
more.
She will
design
her
future
as she
sees
fit.
That’s
oh-so-Serena.
She
has
always
done it
her way,
always
operated
on her
own
terms.
It has
made her
special,
uniquely
skilled
and
beloved
— and
has
sometimes
drawn
criticism.
It has
helped
her
become
one of
the
greatest
athletes
to ever
grace us
— a
Black
woman
who grew
from the
humblest
of
American
beginnings
into a
star
whose
magnetic
pull
reaches
far
beyond
the
bounds
of
sport.
Her
announcement,
in a
Vogue
magazine
cover
story
released
Tuesday,
that she
would be
leaving
tennis
after
playing
the U.S.
Open
later
this
month,
befitted
the
transcendent
figure
she has
become.
It
is easy
to
forget
that her
championship
journey,
which
came to
include
23 Grand
Slam
singles
titles,
just shy
of the
record
of 24
set by
Margaret
Court,
began
with a
win at
the U.S.
Open in
1999. At
17 years
old,
Serena
became
the
first
Black
player
since
Arthur
Ashe in
1975 to
win a
Grand
Slam
singles
title
and the
first
Black
woman to
emerge
victorious
in a
slam
since
Althea
Gibson
in 1958.
Williams
has won
each of
the
Grand
Slam
tournaments
at least
three
times.Credit...Asanka
Brendon
Ratnayake
for The
NYT;
Chang W.
Lee/NYT;
David
Vincent/AP;
Daniel
Berehulak/Getty
Williams
became
the
personification
of
athletic
greatness
and —
for at
least
two
decades
—
carried
the
aspirations
of
gender
and
racial
equity.
Along
the way,
she
showed
the
world
the
incredible
power of
breaking
boundaries
and
obliterating
norms.
The
Vogue
article,
a
first-person
account,
feels
tellingly
symbolic,
even if
it was
long
expected,
given
Williams’s
struggles
competing
in
recent
years.
She did
not
break
the news
on her
Instagram
account,
on ESPN,
or in a
post-match
news
conference.
No,
Williams
does
what she
wants,
when she
wants,
in the
way she
wants.
Of
course
she has
Anna
Wintour,
Vogue’s
tennis-loving
editor,
on speed
dial. Of
course
she
would
announce
that she
is
making a
break
from
tennis
through
one of
the
world’s
premier
fashion
magazines.
Serena
Williams
has
never
let
tennis
define
her.
With
the
retirement
news,
our
memories
of her
come in
waves.
Oh, how
she
loved to
entertain
and put
on a
show.
Isn’t
that
what
drew us
in? She
had a
knack, a
hunger,
a desire
that
demanded
to be
seen.
Watching
her
stride
upon a
Grand
Slam
center
court
for a
first-round
match or
a
pressurized
final
was
entertainment
at its
best.
She drew
multitudes
to the
moment,
bringing
along
those
who
would
never
otherwise
watch a
tennis
match.
Those
new
fans,
and many
tried-and-true
tennis
lovers
who had
watched
the game
for
years,
stood
behind
her when
she
struggled
or found
herself
enveloped
in
disputes
over the
fierce
way she
sometimes
punctured
norms of
on-court
decorum.
Who
can
forget
the 2018
U.S.
Open,
when she
heatedly
clashed
with the
chair
umpire
who
docked
her
first a
point
and then
an
entire
game
toward
the end
of a
loss to
Naomi
Osaka?
The full
spectrum
of her
career
in
tennis —
the
dozens
of
heart-racing
wins and
the
occasionally
torturous
upsets —
weaves
into the
tapestry
that is
Serena
Williams.
Williams
signing
autographs
after a
workout
at the
U.S.
Open in
2015.Credit...Earl
Wilson/The
New York
Times
Race
can
never be
discounted
when we
speak of
Serena,
or of
Venus
Williams,
the
older
sister
who
started
it all.
Their
Blackness
and
their
physical
stature,
cast
against
a tennis
world
where
only a
few
shared a
similar
look,
felt
showstopping.
Ashe
and
Gibson
were
fine
players
who were
occasionally
great.
Yannick
Noah,
the
mixed-race
son of a
Black
Cameroonian
father
and
white
mother,
won the
French
Open in
1983. A
smattering
of other
Black
players,
male and
female,
made
brief
but
important
marks on
tennis.
Nobody
strode
atop the
game or
dominated
it with
the
pounding
consistency
of the
Williams
sisters.
Serena
added a
bold
defiance
to the
undertaking,
as
predicted
with
certitude
by their
father,
Richard
Williams,
who even
when
Venus
was
splashing
first
upon the
tennis
scene
said it
would be
Serena
who
would
become
the best
in
tennis
history.
Can
you
imagine
Jimmy
Evert,
Chris
Evert’s
father,
coach,
and a
member
of the
tennis
establishment,
saying
the same
about
his
daughter
as she
burst
upon the
scene in
the
early
1970s?
Nothing
Serena
Williams
ever did
was
confined
by
tradition.
She
defied
the
status
quo and
played
with a
mix of
consistent,
poleaxing
power
and
touch at
the net,
energized
by a
serve
for the
ages and
a
boxer’s
steely
will.
Only
the
elite of
the
elite
can
change
the way
their
sport is
played.
Think of
Stephen
Curry’s
influence
over
modern
basketball
and its
fixation
with
outside
shooting.
Or Tiger
Woods’s
revolutionary
impact
on golf.
Add
Williams
to the
mix.
Williams
won her
first of
23 Grand
Slam
titles
by
defeating
Martina
Hingis
at the
1999
U.S.
Open.
Credit...Chang
W.
Lee/The
New York
Times
Others
played a
power
game
before
her —
Jennifer
Capriati,
for
example
— just
as there
were
other
3-point
shooters
before
Curry.
Williams
took the
game to
new
heights.
She went
into
that
1999
U.S.
Open
final
against
Martina
Hingis,
who had
catapulted
to the
top of
the
rankings
by
playing
with
finesse
and
exploiting
every
angle as
prescribed
by the
old
guard.
After
Williams’s
power,
speed
and grit
dispatched
Hingis,
6-3,
7-6,
tennis
would
never be
the
same.
Think of
not only
Williams’s
game but
her
style —
how she
stepped
beyond
the old
norms of
fashion
and
appearance
codified
in
tennis
since
the
Victorian
era.
Williams
showed
up as
her full
self,
her hair
braided
or
beaded
or
sometimes
colored
blond.
On the
court,
she wore
outfits
of every
color:
blue,
red,
pink,
black,
tan, you
name it.
She
donned
studs,
sequins
and
boots
disguised
as
tennis
shoes —
or was
it the
other
way
around?
She
wore
clothing
that
flowed
and
swung,
or that
proudly
showed
her
stomach
and
strong
shoulders.
She made
the
full-body
catsuit
a thing
at the
U.S.
Open of
2002 and
the talk
of Paris
at the
French
Open of
2018.
“I
feel
like a
warrior
in it, a
warrior
princess,”
Williams
told
reporters
at the
French
Open, as
she
referred
to the
movie
“Black
Panther.”
“It’s
kind of
my way
to be a
superhero.”
Sure,
noting
her
fashion
might
seem
superficial
and
superfluous.
But not
in this
context.
Black
women’s
bodies
and
fashion
are
often
harshly
criticized
in ways
that
white
women
don’t
usually
experience.
Moreover,
tennis
is one
of those
games
bound by
a
tradition
of
exclusion
and
uniformity.
Williams
blew all
of that
up.
Here’s
another
way she
leaped
beyond
old
bounds.
Recall
that
Williams
won the
2017
Australian
Open
while
she was
two
months
pregnant.
Then
remember
that she
nearly
died in
labor.
Then
recall
her
comeback
after
giving
birth to
Alexis
Olympia.
She
would
make
four
more
major
championship
finals.
She
lost all
of them,
true,
and none
were
close
matches.
But
Williams
was past
her best
years,
with a
child at
her side
and the
business
world
beckoning.
And her
comeback
from
pregnancy
helped
lead to
an
important
rule
change
in
women’s
professional
tennis —
allowing
players
to enter
tournaments
based on
their
pre-pregnancy
rankings
for up
to three
years
after
giving
birth.
Now,
Williams
plans to
end this
phase of
her life
after
her last
match at
the U.S.
Open,
whether
it’s a
first-round
loss or
yet
another
against-all-odds
denouement:
winning
it all,
at 40,
after
barely
stepping
on the
tour
over the
past
year.
She
won’t
walk
away
with
ease.
She made
that
clear as
she
announced
what she
termed
to be
her
“evolution,”
which
will
include
trying
to have
another
child.
Her
attempts,
she
said,
were at
odds
with
continuing
her
tennis
career,
a fact
she
noted
that
male
professional
athletes
do not
have to
contend
with.
This
looks
like the
final
stage of
her
career,
but we
should
never be
surprised
by
Williams.
I
wouldn’t
be
shocked
if
perhaps
with a
second
child or
more in
tow, she
pops up
on the
professional
tour
again,
even for
just one
more
bite of
the
sports
limelight.
If
Serena
Williams
wants
to,
she’ll
do it.
This
much we
know.
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