US Open: The hysterical adoration of the last US superstar at the Serena Open

Serena Williams is in round three of the US Open after two relaxed victories. There awaits the opponent she has known all her life: Sister Venus.

By Jörg Allmeroth from New York

It’s a touching journey through time that one of the many Serena Williams commercials in these US Open days begins with. It goes back 30 years in the emotional piece, to the distant days on the suburban tennis courts of Compton near Los Angeles. Tennis-Daddy Richard Williams is authentic to see training with his younger daughter, then one hears the sentence: “Imagine, that’s you at the US Open”.

Then the tennis kid Serena hits the ball – and the next moment, with a furious cut, the 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena can be seen in full action on the Centre Courts. Also at the US Open, also and especially here, where she won her first major title in 1999. And where she now figures as all and everything outshining grande dame of her sport, almost larger than life, a legend of herself. “Serena is already a historic figure, one of the greatest women athletes in America,” says Billie Jean King, the icon who once founded professional women’s tennis and also paved the way for African American players in the USA.

And now, in a moment of Serena worship that is as hymn-like as it is slightly hysterical, after the 6-2, 6-2 victory over Carina Witthöft, it comes to the 30th Sister Act in the third round of these 2018 Open American Championships – perhaps the last New York appointment of the two sisters who left California two decades ago to conquer the tennis world. Venus was the first to join the tour circus, but Serena was the first of the two sisters to win a major title in New York in 1999.

When they first met at the US Open in 2001, Venus won – then Serena a year later. 17 times in total, the younger of the two sisters won the complicated, not always outstanding duels, 12 times Venus. Patriarch Richard Williams was often accused of having a fixed script for the family matches.

But even that is the past, in the here and now nobody touches on the greatness of these Williams careers, on the dominance they developed at famous locations: In New York, but especially in Wimbledon, where they have won a total of thirteen titles since the beginning of this century – the 36-year-old Serena seven trophies, the 38-year-old Venus six of those trophies with the meaningful name “Venus Rosewater Dish”. Serena is further and further away from her sister, not only because the elderly has been suffering from an autoimmune disease for several years and has had to struggle to regain her place at the top of the world. But also because what Venus said time and again in the early days of this tennis fairy tale to the amazement of experts and reporters: “My sister is much better than me. She’s gonna be the best player ever.”

And here she is now, in August 2018. 23-time Grand Slam winner, winner of all trophies to be distributed in tennis, Olympic gold medal heroine – and recently also proud mother. She seems bigger than her sport, especially at home in America, where you can hardly escape her at one of the probably last big gigs. Serena’s everywhere, it’s close to overkill. Huge advertising banners on the highways, house facades with their profile in Manhattan’s skyscraper gorges, the more or less impressive advertising clips.

In addition, even before the US Open, a five-part series on pay TV about Mama Serena, a cover story in “Time” magazine under the superstar’s quotation: “At the moment nothing is perfect for me. But this is Serena in a perfect way.” And indeed, the woman in her mid-thirties is currently cultivating this approachable image: a woman in whom everything around pregnancy, birth and being a mother is far from ideal, orderly and pleasant. Just like millions of other mothers.

The US Open – they are, at least until now, the Serena Open. Everybody’s talking about Serena, about every move, every comment. Or about her extravagant dress, fishnet stockings and a tutu dress designed by Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of men’s fashion by Louis Vuitton. And Serena herself? She, the only American tennis superstar of our time, loves to talk about Olympia, her little daughter.

And the difficulties of being a mother during the Grand Slam celebrations. “An hour out for tennis, an hour into Manhattan. I spend two hours with her every day,” says Serena. But she would still like to stay here, after all the 24th Grand Slam title, the setting of the all-time record of the Australian Margaret Court, beckons. Should Sister Venus of all people be the spoilsport? “We’re going to do this professionally, as always. And each one does its best,” says Serena.