The United States is rife with
improbable, up-by-the-bootstraps tales. We like to believe we have a corner on the
market, though surely there are some inspirational success stories in India or
Brazil or anywhere other than North Korea or Venezuela.
Very few would top Serena's, though.
The journey taken by Serena (and to only a slightly lesser degree by her
sister) is truly unprecedented. An
African American girl trained on the public courts of Compton, California, by a
conspicuous whack job of a father becomes the most enduringly dominant athlete
of a predominantly Caucasian sport? Come on.
Yeah, yeah, superficially, one could
compare Tiger Woods to Serena. Both began their domination in the late
nineties; both continued through the first decade of this century. But at that point
their paths diverge. Three long years
into his decline, Woods's dominance seems short-lived compared with that of
Serena, who thirteen years after the first of her fifteen Grand Slam singles
and thirteen Grand Slam doubles titles-is still entirely, overwhelmingly ass-hipping
nearly every competitor she meets.
There are blips, of course. Unexplained absences, family members
murdered, unusual injuries, the most curious family box at all the slams. As
all intensely famous and intensely insulated people are, Serena is weird. But
unlike most of the rest of women's tennis, Serena is not crazy. Unlike the best
players in her sport, Serena does not have a crippling mental block that
prevents her from serving effectively. Unlike the best players in her sport, she
has never suddenly lost the ability to play. No. Serena just attacks.
At age thirty-one, with two more
singles Grand Slams and a couple Olympic golds won in 2012, Serena is still rising.
By David
Granger
Esquire,
December 2012
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