Just one major gripe with Williams sisters
 |
- Day 12: Women's F | Day 11: Men's SF
- Day 10: Women's SF |
- | |
- Day 6: Women | | | Women
- | | |
- | | |
Analysis:
- Cronin: Nadal makes case for No. 1
- Pierce: Federer shows his mettle
- Cronin: Venus, Serena at their best
Others:
- Draws: Men's singles | Women's singles
- PHOTOS: Men's final | Women's final | Men's SF | Women's SF | Men's QF
- Results: Men Women | Ranks | Schedule
Partners:
The old man kept both away from the junior circuit and the USTA officials who promised to mold the daughters into Richard's very own Evert and Navratilova. Williams didn't need their help. He didn't want anyone rearranging the symphony for his two Mozarts in sneakers and shorts.
Richard revealed himself to be a prophet, as Venus and Serena grew up to become the two best players in women's tennis — no matter what the official rankings said. And there they stand this week among the Sharapovas and Ivanovics at Wimbledon, with a lot of smart money being taken by British bookies on the wager that either Serena or Venus will win.
They could face each other in the final, of course: the Williams sisters are on opposite sides of the draw and have claimed six of the past eight Wimbledons. But even if another Serena-Venus showdown comes to be, the Williams sisters won't be free and clear of this cold, hard fact:
They should have more Grand Slam titles between them.
Serena has won eight, and Venus has won six, and the combined 14 puts them right at Pete Sampras' men's record, and right at Tiger Woods' temporary number on the Golden Bear's trail. Fourteen is the stuff of Hall of Fame legacies, and the 26-year-old Serena and 28-year-old Venus still have some time to add to the family trophy case.
But tennis is a young woman's racket, and it's becoming increasingly evident that Serena and Venus won't finish their careers among the game's most prolific Grand Slam singles champions.
Margaret Court seized 24 majors, Steffi Graf 22. Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova each won 18.
At their peak, I believe Serena and Venus were better than all of them.
But I'm forever burdened by conflicting thoughts when it comes to the Williams sisters. On one hand, I believe they failed to reach their full potential to dominate their sport. On the other hand, I applaud their desire to be worldly, well-rounded women who don't measure their worth by the results on a scoreboard.
In one breath, we ask our athletes to maximize their talents and expand the boundaries of human achievement. In the next breath, we charge them to be productive citizens whose contributions to society don't stop at match point.
Let's start with the stunning open letter Evert once wrote to Serena in Tennis Magazine. It read like this:
I've been thinking about your career, and something is troubling me ... You won five of the six Grand Slams you entered over the 2002 and 2003 seasons and looked utterly dominant in the process. Then you got sidetracked with injuries, pet projects, and indifference and have won only one major in the last seven you've played. I find those results hard to fathom. You're simply too good not to be winning two Grand Slam titles a year ... These are crucial years that you'll never get back.
Evert sounded like a talk-show caller in the letter, demanding more blood, sweat and tears from an athlete who appeared more interested in being a superstar than in winning like one. "Do you ever consider your place in history?" she asked Serena in the letter.
The Williamses bristled when challenged about their commitment to tennis, defending their right to pursue other business interests — acting, modeling, fashion design, etc. — while still trying to compete at the highest Grand Slam level. They vowed to never join the narrow-minded automatons who lived tournament to tournament.
In the middle of one of several feuds with Martina Hingis, Serena sniped, "(Hingis) just speaks her mind. I guess it has a little bit to do with not having a formal education."
Serena and Venus schooled enough overmatched opponents to create a sensation the men's game couldn't match. An all-Williams final at the U.S. Open once scored better prime time ratings than the college football testosterone-fest that was Nebraska-Notre Dame.
What a wildly improbable tale. "Most amazing thing in sports almost," Lindsay Davenport would say. She should've deleted the almost.
"Could you imagine," Davenport continued, "Tiger Woods challenging a sibling to go head-to-head for all the majors?"
The Williams sisters often draw comparisons to Woods for the obvious reason: They are black athletes ruling country club sports traditionally ruled by whites.
But no matter how many tens of millions he's earned off the course, Tiger has made the pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships his life's ambition. In the end, Woods played the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines with a broken left leg and a torn ACL in his left knee because he thought that course (he'd already won there half a dozen times) gave him a great chance to move closer to Nicklaus.
Serena and Venus are inspired by no such blind pursuit. They're not chasing Court's record the way Woods is chasing Nicklaus' or the way Roger Federer is chasing Sampras'. Years ago, the Williams sisters decided that tennis was more journey than destination.
It's their right to make that choice. Just as it's the right of broadcasters, sportswriters, and even Chris Evert to correctly declare that Serena and Venus — especially Serena, the more talented of the two — have not fully honored their athletic potential.
They couldn't control the injuries suffered along the way, of course, but the Williams sisters have been sidetracked by personal and business interests as much as they've been sidelined by pains and sprains.
They'll still likely end up with a combined 20 major singles titles, a hell of a run. Truth is, Serena should've won 20 on her own.
She says she's at peace with her achievements, and big sister Venus says the same. They've developed into women of substance while raising a lot of trophies to the heavens along the way.
But they could've and should've won more majors. In the end, that will be as much a part of the Serena and Venus story as their early days in Compton chasing 10-cent balls.
advertisement
