Serena Williams, an innate competitive spirit that turned her into a legend

As often happens with the great protagonists of sport, the “exclusive” did not have in this case a journalist who follows the circuit or a vehicle dedicated only to tennis. She was fashion, an American magazine born at the end of the 19th century – when tennis was a game played only by the wealthy classes in English-speaking countries and in France – which has always placed the emphasis on fashion, which published the news that moved the world of sport . Even though he didn’t mention a specific date, the Serena Williams revolves around his retirement. When? It will be this year even if there is not even a 100 percent belief in the words of one of the greatest players of all time. He is now in the second round in Toronto. Then he will go to Cincinnati. And then to Flushing Meadows.

And there, in that tournament he was the only one he aspired to win when, hand in hand with his father and together with his sister Venus-Richard Williams wasted no time and talked to all the coaches and player representatives he could find. them on his plan to form two future number 1s in the world – she has started touring the world and being discovered by all, will give the finishing touches to an exceptional career.

When the last of his team won in Australia in 2017 23 Grand Slams to get back into just one of Margaret Court’s records, Serena Williams walked away from the circuit. Little was known about her until three months later she posted a photo on the Snapchat social network in which she appeared in a yellow shirt and a slight belly. “20 weeks” she wrote her just to let the world know she was pregnant. And the world did the math. She had won in Melbourne already in full gestation of Alexis, her first daughter! She reappeared in a Grand Slam at Roland Garros the following year and in that 2018, in Bois de Boulogne, there was no talk of Simona Halep and her reign with skittles and there was no bet on who would lift Suzanne Lenglen’s cup after the surprise and the early elimination of Jelena Ostapenko, the title holder. None of this. In Paris there was only talk of Serena Williams. Her and her return. About her and her doubts. About her and her couple of victories that invited us to dream of an impressive match against Maria Sharapova in the round of 16. From her and her powerful tennis. Her and … her dress as a comic girl. In short, the youngest of the most famous tennis sisters had returned to play to revitalize the circuit and to get him out of his prolonged state of intensive care. And not just with her game.

Lying 451 on the chart at the time – she isn’t even in that chart today – Williams has always understood the meaning of sports marketing like very few others. That’s why in 2018 she had no qualms about wearing a body-hugging black lycra dress that marked her muscles and more of her bulky figure every time she walked on Parisian brick dust. Wearing a red sash around her waist, she said she accepted her sponsor’s proposal “to improve my blood circulation,” she said. “It’s a fun dress but it’s also functional and allows me to play without problems,” she said.

Accustomed to impressing with her different looks throughout her career, Williams went further in her return to a Grand Slam. She wanted to make the news and she did. And she also had the pleasure of overshadowing the rest of her colleagues.

That was the Serena Williams who, off the pitch, has always stood out. But also inside and the results are visible. Although she shone not only for victories and titles, but also for her intimidating image (“When I faced her, in the previous rally, she didn’t let me shoot on the fly; she shot to kill you even before the games”, Mariana Díaz Oliva once told), its extreme power, its overwhelming strength. The best thing she ever had was her competitive and winning spirit that made her a person capable of giving everything and more and continuing to run until the last point. She was ambitious from a very young age and set very different parameters regarding the speed of her shots, with a serve very similar to that of men and a return and baseline shots that had never been seen among women. She scored a before and after on the circuit and only her stubborn obsession with her to get the 24th Grand Slam prevented him from reaching that milestone. Four times she has made it to a match since reaching the finish line after reaching the Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows finals in 2018 and 2019, but was prevented by Germany’s Kerber, Japan’s Osaka, Romania’s Halep and Canada’s Andreescu.

The chance of him winning the last Grand Slam of the season in New York is far from minimal. But this cannot make us forget an impressive trajectory. Because Serena Williams is one of the greatest references in universal sport.

In any discipline. And of all times. And that will be his greatest legacy.