Set to Reclaim Her Leading Role in Tennis

Sport

Serena Williams Is Set to Reclaim Her Leading Role 

 

 

 

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The 36-year-old tennis superstar with 20 Grand Slam singles titles is ready for some downtime.

Roger Federer said Monday that he was headed home to snowy Switzerland to watch his children ski as he enjoys the afterglow of winning another Australian Open.

Meanwhile, the 36-year-old tennis superstar with 23 Grand Slam singles titles is preparing to end her break. After a little more than a year away because of pregnancy and childbirth, Serena Williams is set to return to official competition for the United States’ first-round Fed Cup match next week against the Netherlands in Asheville, North Carolina.

“Serena is a champion,” her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said in a recent interview. “When she comes back, she will come back to win.”

She has still been present on tour to a degree.

“She’s been the best female tennis player ever and of course everybody’s speaking about her even when is not here,” said Wim Fissette, who coaches Angelique Kerber.

With social media, Williams can be as much a part of the daily conversation at a tournament as she likes, and she weighed in on occasion during the Australian Open.

She congratulated her friend Caroline Wozniacki for winning her first Grand Slam title and, earlier, she called out Tennys Sandgren, the surprise men’s quarterfinalist from the United States, for past comments he had made on his own social media accounts. Sandgren’s Twitter activity — since deleted — included exchanges with alt-right figures, a post saying his eyes were “bleeding” after a visit to a gay club, and a post apparently critical of Williams that used the term “disgusting.”

Williams, increasingly activist in her public statements in recent years, will soon be a physical presence on tour again, not just a virtual one. For now, her only competition in the last year was a lucrative, one-match exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in late December, which she lost to Jelena Ostapenko.

It is quite a juxtaposition: Federer, the biggest star in men’s tennis, taking a break while Williams, the biggest star in women’s tennis, returns to action. But it underscores how complementary the men’s and women’s games can be, a symbiotic relationship that remains one of the sport’s core strengths. Though there are distinctions, men’s tennis and women’s tennis are viewed as the same product by many who tune in only during the year’s biggest tournaments.

Those are nearly all combined men’s and women’s events: from the four Grand Slam tournaments to Indian Wells and Miami.

It is a formula that has long been far ahead of the curve compared with other global sports. (Wimbledon started in 1877 with only men’s singles but added women’s singles in 1884). And it would be shortsighted to dilute or rethink that formula as player dissatisfaction rises again in the men’s game over prize money and sharing tournament revenue.

At the Grand Slams and elsewhere, the women and men can cover for each other. If one singles tournament is pedestrian, the other might sprout wings, and though the men’s game has routinely been must-see in its golden era of rivalries, the women carried the load at this Australian Open.

Their tournament was a treat from its upset-filled opening hours — when Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe all were beaten — to its grueling three-set finish when Wozniacki finally broke through and won her first Grand Slam singles title while depriving Simona Halep of the same delight.

“The women’s tournament has kicked the tail of the men’s tournament,” Darren Cahill, Halep’s coach, said when asked to compare them.

That is not the primary objective, of course. The key point is that together, united and for equal rewards when they share the same stages, women’s tennis and men’s tennis are better off in the long run.

Women’s sports are rising, and tennis is already a sport with a relatively even mix of fans of both genders in many markets.

Does the men’s tour earn more revenue globally and often attract higher viewership? Absolutely. But does the deep and historic connection with women’s tennis make the men’s game and the sport as a whole more relevant to today’s and tomorrow’s audiences?

Yes, and the lucrative, 10-year agreement just signed with Shenzhen, China, to host the season-ending WTA Finals beginning in 2019 is a timely reminder to the men of the WTA’s ability to seal a major deal purely on its own merits.

There can be no question that Serena Williams’ return after childbirth is a boost to tennis, period. It is unclear what role she will play in Fed Cup next week. Singles? Doubles with Venus?

But even if the rust from her layoff was apparent in Abu Dhabi, her rivals are anticipating excellence when she returns in earnest.

“Even a Serena at 80 percent was still better than all the rest when she dominated women’s tennis for so many years,” Fissette said. “From Serena, I only expect the best to be honest, and I believe she will have a good chance of winning a Slam again this year.”

Williams will not be seeded when and if she returns. (She is on the entry list for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, which begins March 5.) Though she can gain entry to tournaments with her protected ranking of No. 1, she has no official ranking after more than a year out of competition. The last time she had no official ranking was in 1997.

“Serena not being seeded — well, that’s tough on everybody,” Fissette said. “It’s going to be very interesting to see the draws.”

Wozniacki, back at No. 1, playing Williams in her opening round at, say, Indian Wells is not out of the question.

“Serena is the bench mark for women’s tennis and has been for the last 10 years,” Cahill said. “The fact she will come back is going to lift everybody’s game. She has everybody’s attention. That has been the case for many years, but the girls have not been twiddling their thumbs while she’s been away.”

He added: “For the women’s game, it’s better to have Serena challenging for majors. It’s up to the girls to make it as tough as possible for her.”

What Federer made abundantly clear in Melbourne, though, is that being 36 years old is no barrier to winning the biggest titles.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

CHRISTOPHER CLAREY © 2018 The New York Times