Enough with the conventions on impartiality. Let’s get a few things straight here. There are times when it feels as if tennis crowds are a little short on love for Serena Williams.
How unfair can you be?
By all means the Centre Court crowd were bellowing for Garbine Muguruza in the second set when she came galloping back from 1-5 to 4-5, on the basis that she was at least half-responsible for delivering an utterly riveting first set, and those watching simply wanted more.
But let’s not forget that another player had a lot to do with the very same delivery of that first set; and above all, when each player was required to dig deeper in the pursuit of victory, only one of them had the resources required.
So let’s spell it out in neon letters a thousand feet high (and a warning here – the words which follow may take up a lot of sky): Serena Williams triumphed 6-4, 6-4 to capture her 21st Grand Slam title, her sixth Wimbledon, at 33 years and 289 days becoming the oldest champion at the All England Club since the game turned professional, possessing all four Slam titles simultaneously for the second time in her career.
And in the seconds following that epoch-making victory, she was greeted with the strangest sound you ever heard at such a moment - near-silence.
“I was really confused,” said Serena. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to serve again. I was so focused. I was like, ‘OK… Is that the match? Is that it?’ Plus the umpire didn’t say ‘game, set, match’ really loud, so I wasn’t sure if there was some type of call or something.”
Thank goodness for the healthy-lunged onlooker among the 15,000 on Centre Court, who pierced the long minutes of peculiar hush following her win and seized a chance to put the record straight.
Wow! Huge congrats to @SerenaWilliams for her win at Wimbledon. We're all so proud of you! -mo
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) July 11, 2015“We love you, Serena!” he bawled, giving the crowd a get-out from the inexplicable awkwardness of it all. They took their cue with embarrassed gratitude and – at last – emitted the bellowing ovation their champion so deserves.
Serena herself glanced over her left shoulder in the direction of the mystery voice, with a smile as wide as the sky. This champion is all woman, but there are times when no one does girlishness like her, as when delicious laughter took hold of her in the minutes after she won, and she skipped out of her chair to give a live-action demonstration of the phrase ‘literally jumping for joy’.
“Man, it really is a great feeling,” she said. “I honestly wouldn’t have thought last year after winning the US Open that I would win the Serena Slam again. Doing that again stands out the most. I had to problem-solve against Garbine. Having all four trophies at home is incredible. The toughest part is just to stay in the moment – win each match, each set, each point.”
It could have been so different. I have written it many times, but there are never enough championships or gold medals to go around all the elite competitors who should win them, never mind could. Wimbledon 2015 might simply have been someone else’s story, and the reason it wasn’t is Serena herself. Her appetite for the fight remains unsated. Defeat merely leaves her more famished than ever – as Muguruza learned in this final, 14 months after inflicting on Williams her most humiliating Grand Slam defeat ever, for the loss of four games in the second round at Roland Garros.
If she takes that outright Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows in September, she will be 14 days shy of her 34th birthday. It will put her level with Steffi Graf, who was just 19 when she completed her Slam in 1988; the German won all but one of her Slam titles by the age of 27 and three months, clinching her last just shy of her 30th birthday.
So add this to your handy list of gasp-making facts about Serena: since her own 30th birthday, she has won eight Slam titles. And if you’re of the opinion that her career total is anything like finished, then you’re going to find yourself short of people to chat with in tennis, because most observers project her final total in the mid-to-high 20s.
“I’ve won New York three times in a row,” she mused. “I hope this isn’t the year that I go down. But doing the Serena Slam again has taught me I’m able to do anything.
.@serenawilliams proves yet again: anything is possible when you work hard, dream big, and never stop reaching. #Wimbledon
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 11, 2015"There will be 127 people in New York [in the women’s draw] who don’t want to see me win – nothing personal. What I’ve done is huge – but I don’t have the Grand Slam in my hands.”
The unspoken word ‘yet’ hung in the air.
Wimbledon 2015 has borne witness to the carving of sporting legend – and we greet that legend with silence. How can this be? Where is the love for Serena Williams? Consider the facts. These two entities – Serena and love – have a fair bit in common. Each can illogically yet simultaneously be acclaimed as: (a) the greatest thing; (b) the oldest; and (c) the latest thing… to list but three.
This woman is one of the greatest achievers of all time, in any field, on the entire planet. Make some noise, people. In fact, make a lot of noise. The phrase “you’re history” is usually uttered to those being despatched in defeat. Serena Williams is history, and she’s walking among us. All rise.
