Serena Williams is no longer just a sports superstar. Shortly before the start of the Wimbledon tournament it became clear that the 36-year-old can now move with style on many floors – and her word is heard. On Monday she will join the most important major event in tennis.
By Ulrike Weinrich from Wimbledon
Serena Williams was supposed to be in the comfortably air-conditioned Main Interview Room at the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday noon to give media representatives from all over the world an insight into her exciting life. But perhaps the best player in the story had simply changed her mind.
Question Time was rescheduled for one day. The journalists left disappointed for the time being. The female players’ association WTA would do a devil to read the riot act for its figurehead. Tennis needs Serena, the global world star with connections in all areas of society. Certainly more than the other way around. That’s how it seems these days.
The younger Williams is present everywhere. In the gossip press, in fashion gazettes as well as in serious magazines, in which she often says rather clever sentences about topics such as equality and racism. She is a role model – not only for many colored people in the USA.
One like her, the happy mother with an estimated four hundred million dollars in her account, who comes from the infamous L.A. suburb of Compton and whose sister Yetunde became the victim of a gang war, is taken off a lot after this hard-earned social rise.
It is also significant that the seven-time Wimbledon winner skipped the press conference on Saturday because she wanted to accompany her friend, Duchess Meghan, partout to a polo match of Prince Harry to Ascot. Needless to say, Williams was also a guest of honor at the wedding of US actress Meghan Markle and the royal family member in London on May 19.
With one day delay, the former world number one, officially ranked 181 in the WTA ranking, gave herself the honour on Sunday. And reconciled the media representatives again a bit, because she was in a strikingly good mood about herself, her sugar-sweet daughter Alexis Olympia (ten months) – and felt about everything else.
That she has a “Mommy Brain,” for example. In other words: Forgets a lot – and often only has their offspring in mind. That she had lost nothing, absolutely nothing of her ambition. “I’ve won a great kid and so many grand slams. The pressure has decreased,” said the power player, but admitted: “I’m shocked myself at how much I want the pressure. That’s just crazy”.
But it also speaks for itself and Williams’ unbroken (winning) mentality. “It shows,” she says – and suddenly speaks of herself in the third person, as only the grown-ups do: “It shows who Serena is!” Nevertheless, the 23-time major winner doesn’t seem remote, but also somehow down-to-earth.
But her opponents should dress warmly as a precaution – despite the stubborn British high summer with predicted temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius. At her Grand Slam comeback in Paris in May, Williams reached the round of 16, but could not reach the classic against her arch-rival Maria Sharapova (Russia) due to a chest muscle/shoulder injury.
And the journey back on the sacred turf is something very special for the right-hander from Florida after her absence in 2017 and exactly 20 years after her Wimbledon debut. “I have such amazing memories of this place. I wanted to share it with my daughter.” Earlier this week she took Alexis Olympia to the Centre Court. “I got all emotional about it. Much more than I thought,” confessed Serena Williams.
On Church Road she is ranked 25th despite her weak world ranking – which not everyone liked. The Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, who suffered, shouted that there was a “Lex Williams”. “This is unfair. I’ve done everything I can and I’m losing my place. It’s my right to be seated. They only do it because it’s Serena,” said Cibulkova.
But Williams did not strike back verbally on Sunday. On the contrary, she rested in herself, radiating complete satisfaction the day before her opening match against Dutchman Arantxa Rus on Monday. Just the tame mega-star.