Serena’s Sendoff
On Sept. 2, American tennis player Serena Williams retired from professional women’s tennis after a 27 year career. Williams was a dominant figure in her sport and is the only woman in the Open Era to win 23 Grand Slam titles. In the August edition of Vogue, Williams wrote to explain her decision to retire, mentioning how she had been struggling with various issues over the past several years. Some of these issues included injuries like the severe ankle sprain that forced her to miss the 2021 U.S. Open, outside commitments like her venture capital firm and not getting enough time to spend with her family and daughter. Williams told Vogue, “I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I do not think it is fair.” As a result, Williams decided that the 2022 U.S. Open would be her last tournament, where she advanced to the third round until losing to Ajla Tomljanovic. Junior and tennis player Sydney Ivravanchy expresses how Williams took an important step to retire and how it will benefit her in the future.
“It was a good decision for Williams to retire from tennis so she can move on to do other things in life apart from tennis,” Iravanchy said. “She is a mother of a young child and it is really important that she gets to spend more time with her daughter and family to form memories that she can cherish.”
Williams began her tennis journey at the age of three and was coached by her father, Richard Williams, throughout her junior career. In 1999, she won the U.S. Open at the age of 17, becoming the second African-American woman to win a Grand Slam tournament. Throughout her lengthy career, Williams faced many problems outside of tennis including racism toward her and her family, comments about her attitude and unfair treatment. According to the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, during one of her matches at the 2001 Indian Wells tournament, fans booed her family and yelled racial slurs throughout the match. Williams proceeded to boycott the tournament for 14 years due to the racism that her family endured and still feels haunted by the experience. Furthermore, Williams was criticized by many commentators including public figures like John McEnroe due to her hairstyle and her attitude toward umpires and other players; the commentators thought her hairstyle was a distraction because the beads from her hair would often fall out. As mentioned by American Broadcasting Companies News in 2018, Williams was also treated poorly by the U.S. Open umpire, Carlos Ramos, during the tournament final against Naomi Osaka. After receiving one warning and another penalty, Serena confronted Ramos which caused him to issue another penalty to Williams for abusing an umpire or official. This led many of Williams’ supporters to point out the unfairness of such penalties: while male tennis players are often praised for snapping at umpires and protesting their violations, Williams was heavily criticized and belittled for opposing Ramos. However, despite these racist and sexist incidents, Williams still played through every issue and continued to excite fans with her performances for many years. Freshman and varsity tennis player Emma Gonzalez explains why Williams is a role model to fans and young athletes across the globe.
“Williams is such a huge idol for so many young players like me,” Gonzalez said. “It was so inspiring to see how she continued to play so many tournaments after the birth of her child and at her age. It teaches us young players to learn how to fight and never give up in the game of tennis like she did.”
Emerging female tennis stars like Coco Gauff, a 2022 French Open finalist, have also mentioned how Williams inspired them to start their tennis journeys. Gauff explained that Williams taught her to never settle for less, especially as Black women are often told to be complacent with racism and sexism. Senior Allie Dzida was similarly inspired by the journey of Williams, explaining how the tennis world will be different after Williams’ retirement. “I think that with the end of Serena’s professional career, it will change the world of tennis for the better because she shifted the way that people viewed tennis,” Dzida said. “Her retirement will give new players a chance to take inspiration from her and become great all-round tennis players like she did. Williams will be dearly missed, but her accomplishments will be remembered forever.”
