The 10 months that prove Serena Williams stands alone as the tennis GOAT
SERENA Williams almost died shortly after giving birth. Yet 10 months on she was just one win away from collecting her 24th grand slam. This is why she is The Greatest Of All Time, writes Jessica Halloran.
Tennis
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SERENA Williams almost died shortly after giving birth.
Yet 10 months on she has smashed her opponents off the Wimbledon grass like she had never taken maternity leave.
The woman is The Greatest Of All Time. An inspiration.
Ten months after giving birth to my daughter I deemed it quite an achievement to nail a supermarket shop and cart it all back up three flights of stairs.
Serena is not only the greatest player of the women’s game but tennis itself.
Yes, better than the other GOAT, Roger Federer, and not just because she has three more titles than him.
Sure, the Fed has two sets of twins but he hasn’t had to skip a tournament because of their birth, nor nearly died, made a fighting comeback unseeded and then dominated Wimbledon.
Serena’s story after giving birth to Alexis via an emergency C-section is one of nightmares.
There were the blood clots on her lungs hours after Alexis Olympia arrived.
She struggled to breathe because of them. There were coughing fits because of the pulmonary embolism which caused her C-section scar to pop open.
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She told Vogue magazine when she was wheeled back into surgery to have that wound fixed, again, they found a haematoma had ‘flooded her abdomen’.
Serena was back in surgery again to have a filter inserted into a major vein to stop more clots from dislodging and travelling to her lungs.
After this she was left bed ridden for six weeks. Then the nanny to help her through the nights didn’t come through.
Those first weeks were full of trauma, sleepless nights and exhaustion. She could barely walk to the letterbox. It was no way to start a “tennis mom” comeback.
Sure, Serena may have all the financial means in the world, after earning $US84 million in prizemoney over her career, and in turn the support (the nanny, the chef et al) to make her mum life easier.
But even will all that help motherhood can still bring you to your knees.
Serena’s spoken with brutal honesty about breaking down in tears, like most of us do in the early days of motherhood, and all those “insane” emotions you endure.
“No one talks about the low moments,” she told Vogue. “[The] incredible let-down every time you hear the baby cry… Or I’ll get angry about the crying, then sad about being angry, and then guilty, like, ‘Why do I feel so sad when I have a beautiful baby?’ The emotions are insane.”
When Federer’s growing brood was raised in the same conversation earlier this year, Serena remarked with her usual candour.
“It’s so unfair,” Serena said. “He produced four babies and barely missed a tournament. I can’t even imagine where I’d be with twins right now. Probably at the bottom of the pool.”
Bless Serena. Since having Alexis Olympia she has raised and owned the conversation again around the difficulties of being a “working mom”.
She broke down in tears last week after missing her baby’s first steps because she was training. That honest revelation caused an outpouring of empathy from working mums who have missed similar milestones.
Serena’s mere presence on the tour again has also raised conversations about providing adequate childcare outside major slams and protected seeding for new mums on tour.
Serena, the former world No.1, was unseeded at the BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open and French Open grand slam. Without a seeding new mums risk facing highly ranked players in the early rounds.
Williams, who has won $US50 million more than any other female tennis player, also this year called for more respect for women on tour and to give them more time on show courts.
Last summer fellow American Andy Roddick said Serena was not one of the “greatest woman athletes of all time but one of the greatest athletes of all time”.
Roddick said it was time to mention her name in the same conversation as Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.
She absolutely deserves that level of respect.
While I can marvel at her strength since her baby’s arrival — her #momstrength as her husband Alexis Ohanian has dubbed it — it’s really her whole journey which is something else.
You can’t forget her childhood in the crime-ridden neighbourhood in Compton, training on public courts at times littered with the syringes of drug addicts and with gun fire in the background.
Then there was 2003 death of her sister Yetunde Price, who was murdered in a drive-by shooting.
There are all the times she has endured the relentless and gross scrutiny of her body — all the while championing equality for women — and then there’s the racist remarks thrown her way on and off the tennis court.
She won the Australian Open while pregnant, and now as a ‘working mom’ at Wimbledon she has proven again she is one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen.
Not many have dominated a sport let alone tennis like Serena has.
Yes, not even Roger.