Serena Williams crashed out of the US Open on Friday in what may be the last of her illustrious career, but the impact she had on her game for more than two decades will be felt for generations to come.
Williams, who made her professional debut in 1995, a year after her older sister Venus, has been one of the sport’s best-selling stars. She has several corporate partners and in 2019 became the first athlete to appear on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women.
Williams, 40, who also lost in a US Open doubles event with sister Venus, said in a Vogue article last month that she was “getting away from tennis” and added in an Instagram post that “the countdown has begun.” ”
Although Williams has not said exactly when her last tournament will be, US Open organizers welcomed her with an elaborate farewell ceremony after her first-round match on Monday.
Williams revolutionized women’s tennis with a deadly mix of powerful serves, groundstrokes and superb athleticism and won 23 Grand Slam titles to become the most successful player in the Open Era, the most recent being in 2017.
That success also inspired a generation of tennis players, including Naomi Osaka, who beat Williams in the final of the 2018 US Open to claim her first of four majors and remember seeing her childhood idol.
“When I was little, the family event was watching Serena and Venus,” Osaka, of Japanese and Haitian parent, said.
“So when I was watching it, it really shocked me. I never got to see him play live in a match, but I got to see his practice. Seeing that, seeing people who look like me, that’s for sure. Absolutely inspiring.”
rights of women
Throughout her career, Williams has been vocal about the culture of racism that she and her family, including Venus, were subjected to in a predominantly white sport.
At the height of her career, Williams initiated a 14-year boycott of a marquee tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, after facing a racist joke there in 2001, an incident she said she cried in the locker room for hours. doing .
In 2018, she accused officials of allowing a culture of sexism in the sport to run rampant, with female players punished for things their male counterparts would never be punished for.
Williams was particularly upset after Osaka was handed a series of code violations during the final loss of the US Open, when she was docked a game for verbal abuse after telling the umpire that she was being punished for a previous violation. There were “thieves” to steal a point. ,
Williams said at the time, “I’m here fighting for women’s rights and women’s equality …. He never played a man because he called him a ‘thief’.”
Tennis pioneer Billie Jean King was among many who praised her for highlighting the “double standards” that plague female players.
Williams told British Vogue in 2020, “In this society, women are not expected to be the leaders of the future or the CEOs of the future. The story has to change. And it may not get better in time for me, But someone in my position can show women and people of color that we have a voice because God knows I use me.
“I love being up for people and supporting women. Being the voice that millions of people don’t have.”
Williams also pushed the boundaries of fashion on the tennis court, perhaps most notably at the 2018 French Open when she took to the court wearing a skin-tight black catsuit with a red waistband – which she said was prone to blood clots. Helped to deal with, which threatened them. life when she gave birth to her daughter a few months back.
However, the idea of female players coming in such unorthodox tennis attire upset the Roland Garros establishment, which then banned such outfits from the Paris chief.
Writer Howard Bryant, who wrote “The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America and the Politics of Patriotism”, said in a report https://ift.tt/LaMGBPF . Elegant-what-Serena-Williams-and-Roger-Federer-Have-Mean-To-Tennis.com will see Williams’ career as a dividing line when it comes to women and black athletes.
“With his standing and his empire, he has created a counter-voice and a new perspective,” Bryant said in the report.
“It’s changed how we investigate behavior. You can’t just gang up on him or make off-hand comments about his body. His stature is that of any great male athlete.
“In 100 years, if we ask when that change happened, we’ll be back in Serena.”
