Serena Williams: The Queen who wouldn't hold back
"Rein it in, Rena."
That line would undoubtedly have been uttered countless times over the last couple of decades as people watched Serena Williams in action. There was often, if you listened to those with a need to air their opinion, the sense that Williams was too much - she went for too much with her shots, screamed too much at winning or losing a point, expressed herself with too much abandon.
Rena didn't know restraint. It was always all or nothing with her; there was never any in-between. And while that may or may not have been a factor in her presence at the top of the game for nearly 25 years, or in her Open Era record haul of 23 Slams, it sure came to define her personality and legacy.
The legacy, of course, was secure well before the American played her last career match - against Ajla Tomljanovic in the US Open third round on Friday. It is impossible to doubt the greatness of someone who not only won the most Slams in the Open Era, but also dominated three different generations of players. But when Williams announced last month that she would be retiring after the US Open, it turned the tournament into a can't-miss spectacle. You can't not tune in when the GOAT takes one final bow.
Williams went down swinging, as we knew she would, saving five match points before her legs finally gave way. But every minute she was on the court, she reminded the roaring Arthur Ashe crowd (who turned up in record numbers for all three of her matches in the week) how completely she throws herself into everything she does.
Every blow she struck was full-blooded; every war cry she let out was at full decibel. Serena didn't do half measures, and that remained true till the very end.
Her all-or-nothing approach didn't always work. Sometimes over the course of her career, the forehand would fly beyond the tramlines because she didn't want to add spin or margin to it. Sometimes the return of serve would refuse to fall in the court, because blocking it back wasn't her style. And sometimes emotions or the occasion would get the better of her, making her lose focus and ultimately control over her game.
But she still, somehow, won more than any other woman before her. Williams was as close to a sure thing as you could get in the sport; when crunch time arrived you just knew she'd find her best tennis and get the job done, despite everything.
And that, really, is what the underlying theme of every Serena Williams story should be - not just that she was the most successful player of all time, but that she achieved all that she did despite the odds always being against her.
We had internalized her incredible life history even before the release of King Richard, the 2021 Oscar-winning biopic on her father and coach Richard Williams. Serena and her sister Venus had to fight past financial difficulties as well as racism in the early days, as the movie so strikingly reminded us; their journey from the courts of Compton to the top of the tennis world was anything but easy.
What the movie didn't show was that things continued to be challenging long after the Williams sisters became globally recognized champions. At Indian Wells they were booed and reportedly hurled racist comments at for withdrawing from a match due to injury. At press conferences they were accused by the likes of Martina Hingis of using the race card to gain unfair advantages. And at the 2004 US Open, Serena was deprived of so many points by a biased umpire that it forced the tennis world to adopt the Hawkeye replay system.
For two black women to overcome all those obstacles and dominate a predominantly white sport - and change the game while they were at it - was sensationally unprecedented already. But for one of those women to go on and eclipse every relevant record held by every great player in the history of the game? There's no word in the English language to do justice to something like that.
Serena oversaw the creation of a new era characterized by power and athleticism, and she was the best player in the world for nearly two decades (with a few breaks in between). The American made the sport all her own; anything that any player did was always measured against the Serena yardstick.
'Sure you can serve big, but can you serve like Serena?'
'Sure you can hit hard, but can you produce winners on command the way Serena does?'
Along the way, she inspired countless youngsters - of all races and backgrounds - to dream big and believe in themselves. There was one simple message that reverberated around the world: if Serena Williams could break so many barriers and become the best, why couldn't anyone else?
In that respect it's easy to see why, just before the start of the US Open, Naomi Osaka called her the 'biggest force in the sport'.
"I think her legacy is really wide to the point where you can't even describe it in words," Osaka said in her pre-tournament press conference. "Like, she changed the sport so much. She's introduced people that have never heard of tennis into the sport. I think I'm a product of what she's done. I wouldn't be here without Serena, Venus, her whole family."
"I honestly think that she's, like, the biggest force in the sport," Osaka added. "That's not intentionally trying to, like, make Federer or Nadal smaller. I just think she's the biggest thing that will ever be in the sport."
For several years now there have been raging debates about whether Williams, rather than your preferred member of the 'Big 3' (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic), is the one true GOAT. Williams' 23 Majors, to go with her multiple year-end championships, double non-Calendar Slam and four Olympic golds, certainly make a good case for her. On the flip side, there is the argument that if Williams was pitted against any of the Big 3 on the court, she'd likely end up losing.
But as Osaka indirectly pointed out, it's not just about ability on the court. We all know that Williams has plenty of tennis skill, just like the Big 3 do. But what Williams has - and the Big 3 don't - is a sphere of influence that stretches well beyond the boundaries of tennis and even beyond the era we live in.
Williams is the reason why players like Osaka, as well as Sloane Stephens, Coco Gauff and Madison Keys, had enough self-belief to chart their way to the top. She is the reason why tennis is not considered the preserve of rich white kids anymore. She is the reason why a player being 'different' is now considered something to be celebrated rather than derided.
Can any amount of Major titles - whether by a male player or a female one - top that?
Admittedly, there were a few obvious blemishes in Williams' career. She often wanted to win too badly, which sometimes made her a sore loser - who can forget that 'lucky shots' comment about Justine Henin after the 2007 US Open loss? She could also be an ungracious champion ("I think Dinara Safina did a great job to get to No. 1 - she won Rome and Madrid"). And the less said about her infamous run-in with the lineswoman at the 2009 US Open, the better.
Do those incidents make her any less of a champion? In the eyes of some, they do. But in the eyes of others, they make her more relatable.
Serena Williams is many things - tennis champion, trailblazer, feminist icon, loving parent, doting mother - but she is also, at the end of it all, a human being. And when you saw her stumble - and occasionally fall from grace - in her bid to get what she wanted, you could also see just what it took for her to go from ordinary to supernatural.
The WTA posted an indescribably touching tribute to Williams after her loss on Saturday, and one line in particular stayed with you.
Dear Serena...
A letter from Tennis ✉️
#ThankYouSerena | @AustralianOpen | @rolandgarros | @Wimbledon | @usopen https://t.co/FVtVORpVvn
"The fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person that has emotions and that want to express themselves, and they want to be a strong woman, and they’re going to be allowed to do that because of today," Williams could be heard saying.
The line was from the 2018 US Open, where Williams was penalized a game by chair umpire Carlos Ramos because she disagreed with his claim that she was receiving coaching (and called him a 'thief'). While Williams certainly went overboard in her reactions during the match, what she said in the post-match presser drove home a valid point: that female players are penalized a lot more easily than male players for expressing their emotions.
How many times have you heard someone criticize Williams for being too loud with her 'Come on!'s? How many times have you seen her being belittled for supposedly trying to 'intimidate' her opponents with her body language?
When Rafael Nadal lets out an almighty "VAMOS!" after winning a point, we commend his passion. When Nick Kyrgios and Daniil Medvedev insult and berate chair umpires, Tennis TV makes highlights reels out of the episodes. But when Serena Williams does those same things, she is cast as a villain.
It is to Williams' eternal credit that she learned to ignore the naysayers early in her career and keep winning anyway. She wouldn't hold back no matter what people thought or said, and 23 Slams later we know that she was right not to.
Several accounts on Twitter asked their followers on Friday to name their favorite Serena Williams moment. When I thought of replying, I couldn't pinpoint any one memory. Instead, I kept replaying all those times Williams hit a blazing no-holds-barred backhand that looked like it would pull her arm right out of its socket.
I also recalled those screams of "Come on!", screams that so offended others but for me were a perfect representation of her intensity. And I smiled as I relived those exuberant post-match celebrations, where she jumped up and down like a kid who had never been taught the meaning of restraint.
'Rein it, Rena.' Why would she, when she could reign over the world instead?