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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Afua Hirsch

Serena Williams showed the world that black women excel. That has changed us all

Serena Williams after defeating Montenegro's Danka Kovinić at the US Open in New York, 29 August 2022
Serena Williams after defeating Montenegro's Danka Kovinić at the US Open in New York, 29 August 2022. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

We don’t deserve Serena Williams. Nothing about this world makes it likely that a little black girl from Compton – now “evolving” away from professional competition after her final match at the US Open – would become an indisputable Goat.

Witnessing Williams’s ascension to Greatest of All Time status has been an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The sheer longevity of her career sunk in for me when I discovered that Emma Raducanu, who Williams has played this season, had not even been born during one of Williams’s most memorable seasons: 2002, when she won three grand slam titles in a row.

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