MIAMI — England just finished celebrating its Queen’s 75-year reign and now gets to cheer its tennis queen’s unexpected return at Wimbledon commencing June 27. There is great sentiment wrapped in both occasions because we know that, amid the celebration, we are watching the end draw near.
Seven of Serena Williams’ open-era record 23 Grand Slam singles championships have come at the All England Club, where she is adored.
Her return at 40, though, comes wrapped in nostalgia, in memories. She has not played since leaving Wimbledon injured a year ago, the inactivity plummeting her WTA ranking to 1,208th. She was granted a wild-card invitation, an homage to what was, to who she used to be.
Williams announced her comeback rather cryptically on her Instagram Tuesday: SW and SW19. It’s a date. 2022. See you there. Let’s Go. #renasarmy
(SW of course are her initials. Less obvious, SW19 is the postal code for Wimbledon).
Brits last watched Serena raise the gilded silver Venus Rosewater Dish and cheered her as champion in 2016. She was coming to the end of her prime, but who knew it then? We seldom do in sports, except in retrospect. Her only major win since was the 2017 Australian Open.
One or two more would be significant. Though Williams owns the open-era major wins record with 23, Margaret Court has 24 including pre open-era wins. Court, now 79, has become controversial and an embarrassment to tennis for her loud bigotry against LGBTQ rights and opposition to same-sex marriage in her native Australia. Many in the sport, starting with vocal critics Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, would love to see Serena top Court for total majors.
Williams’ comeback lends a needed boost to Wimbledon, which announced a ban on players from Russia and Belarus over the ongoing war in Ukraine and suffered an unexpected backlash from both the WTA and men’s ATP tours. The ban means world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia will not compete. In response neither tour will award rankings points for Wimbledon this year.
(The All England Club took another hit when the U.S. Open, rather than standing in solidarity, announced it would welcome players from Russia and Belarus).
Williams’ return, even now, lifts Wimbledon. Starpower can do that. Starpower outlasts one’s prime, outlasts the wins.
It was 20 years, ago, in July 2002, when Serena, from Palm Beach, first achieved a No. 1 ranking. But maternity leave interrupted her reign and then nagging injuries and time took over. She watched Ash Barty and now Iga Swiatek take over the top of her sport. Barty stunned the tennis world by retiring (at least for now) at 25, but Swiatek, ranked No. 1 by a lot and only 21, seems poised for a lengthy domination.
Where does Serena fit now at almost twice Swiatek’s age? Does she have a last hurrah left in her game or at least a deep run? Or is she on a fast fade to early exits, her late career a nostalgia tour?
This is a golden age in sports, and we know by the long goodbyes underway.
Serena at 40 and sister Venus turning 42 on Friday. Roger Federer will be 41 in August.
We thought we’d said goodbye to Tom Brady but he needed a curtain call. He turns 45 in six weeks.
Tiger Woods, 46, and Phil Mickelson, turning 52 Thursday, are somehow still the biggest thing in golf.
It seems as if LeBron James is defying age, at 37. Same with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in soccer.
But time never stops and always wins, right?
It’s why there is a sentimentality to sports, even a pathos, as we watch our favorite athletes age just like us.
It is why Woods walking up an 18th fairway toward the green and raising a hand to acknowledge the adoration makes us feel something. Because we know we won’t have the sight and the sound of that much longer, just the memory.
It is why Serena Williams playing Wimbledon matters as much as it ever did. And maybe more.
