Victories are easy to celebrate. What usually gets forgotten is everything that had to be survived first to get there. Serena Williams put that gap into words directly. "I really think a champion is defined not by their wins, but by how they can recover when they fall," she said. Across a career filled with genuine triumphs, she also faced injuries, defeats, criticism and long absences from the sport, and returned from every single one of them, which is really what gives this particular line its actual weight rather than treating it as a nice thing to say after a big win.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
