January 27, 2007
The New York Times
For Asha Price, watching from afar as her youngest sister made a remarkable run at the Australian Open has been a nerve-racking, eye-opening experience.
Price, the oldest sister of Serena Williams, frequently acts as the family’s spokeswoman. You often see her in the Williams box during Grand Slam matches. This time, she stayed in the United States with her sister Venus. They watched Serena’s extraordinary run on pins and needles.
“It’s been interesting to watch it from over here,” Price said yesterday from her home in Washington. “Venus needs a sedative. We’re all struggling through it together.”
The sisters watched last night as Serena pulled of the most incredible upset of her career, defeating the top-seeded Maria Sharapova in two lopsided sets to win the Australian Open.
In Price’s mind — and I agree — Serena’s greatest victory was simply in reaching the finals in Melbourne. After watching Serena play what may have been the best wire-to-wire match of her career, one wonders how there was ever any doubt about her. What made her dominance more impressive was the steep hill she had to climb to make it this far, a climb that should throw cold water on all the talk about her commitment to the game.
After spending much of last year away from tennis rehabilitating nagging injuries, the Australian Open should have been a testament to Serena’s perseverance.
At virtually every session, however, she is asked the obligatory question about conditioning. Even in successful years like 2003, 2004 and 2005, questions were asked about her dedication to the game.
“To me,” Price said, “it’s a disservice to say continuously, ‘She’s not in shape, she’s not match tough.’ She’s not match ready and she made the final. So now what are you going to say?”
There’s not much to say.
Serena reaching a Grand Slam final, and winning in convincing fashion, without being in peak condition is either a commentary on the state of women’s tennis or testimony to her dominance. I say the latter. Serena is one of the most phenomenal athletes of her generation, although her presence in this Grand Slam final was the result of sheer will.
Serena Williams is a fascinating athlete and a fascinating tennis player. She doesn’t fit the mold. She has never fit the mold, in her ethnicity, her build, her athleticism and her style. She has power, skill, determination, and a body many in her sport would die for.
“She’s never going to look like Venus,” Price said yesterday. “She’s never going to look like a typical European type of player. She’s shaped just like our mom. She’s going to have a behind, she’s going to have breasts, she’s going to be very feminine. She’s going to look like that.”
Over the last 13 days in Melbourne, Williams has offered a number of fascinating insights into her psyche as she scaled one unexpected level after another.
Her recurrent themes were stamina, mental ability and desire. One reporter wondered how she was able to prevail in Melbourne despite being in less than perfect condition.
“I’ve always been mentally strong, I think probably mentally stronger than a lot of players on the Tour,” she told reporters.
No one expected Williams to reach, much less win, a Grand Slam final. The undercurrent has been that her days as a dominant player were over. That may be, but for some athletes, and Williams is one of them, there’s something energizing about being doubted.
“I love doubters,” Williams said after a match last week. “I have a lot of people even close to me who doubt. I love doubters. More than anything what I love, besides obviously winning, is proving people wrong.”
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Serena and Venus Williams are the great American story, a story often told but not yet fully comprehended. I’m not sure any of us will completely grasp the magnitude of the story until the sisters are out of tennis: Two sisters, raised in Compton, Calif., training on public courts, operating on the periphery of the tennis establishment. They rose and dominated women’s tennis, along the way introducing new clothes, a new style, and establishing a new standard of athleticism in woman’s tennis. It was a standard embraced and taken to new levels by young players like Sharapova. In addition to all of her injuries, in 2003 Serena’s older sister Yetunde Price was murdered, and today in Melbourne, Serena dedicated her stunning victory to her.
At the same time, the family has been a lightning rod for controversy around issues surrounding race, gender and class. The family has been criticized nearly every step of the way, from Venus’s detachment to Serena’s wardrobe and conditioning to the eccentricities of their father, Richard Williams. They have been criticized for not playing enough, for not playing hard enough against each other. Serena was confronted Thursday with an accusation that someone in her box was intentionally flashing a watch into the eyes of Nicole Vaidisova during their semifinal match. Even the color (green) of Serena’s outfit was called into question as a potential (and intentional) distraction.
“It’s a constant fight of fighting America,” Price said yesterday.
“Fighting everybody, it’s a constant fight. They should know how strong she is. They made her that way.
“It’s difficult listening to the American commentators talk about how important it is in America that we have great tennis players, and you have an American there and you mistreat her.”
For selfish reasons, I want to see the Williams sisters make one more outstanding run. Tennis is never more exciting or combustible than when Venus and Serena are in the mix, either battling each other or fighting off the pack.
The season’s first Grand Slam is over. But clearly, for Serena Williams, the final chapters are still being written.
E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com
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