To truly appreciate all that '24' means to Serena Williams, you've got to understand the hunger.
This is a woman who was raised in Compton, after all, the daughter of a onetime sharecropper who came of age in the Jim Crow South. She was born for the sport, really, along with her big sister Venus, a purposeful plan hatched by parents Richard and Oracene when they saw Virginia Ruzici pocket $40K on their living-room TV set.
Is that all it takes? they wondered. If it’s that easy, we'll have two of our own and change the face of the game.
There was a certain chip-squarely-on-shoulder, skirt-the-establishment defiance from the get-go. Fed shopping carts full of threadbare tennis balls on cracked, chain-linked courts, the prodigies ignored the long-accepted route, skipping high-pressure junior tournaments and high-fee academies. They kept it in the family.
Venus made her pro debut in Oakland in '94, only 14 but already flashing her Grand Slam promise. Her kid sis would soon follow. To anyone who would listen, Richard Williams guaranteed a Nos. 1-2 future for his girls. He insisted too, that it would be Serena, not Venus, who would go furthest in the sport. It remains (all apologies, Messieurs Ruth and Namath) the greatest, impossible-odds prediction in sports history.
Sure, Althea and Arthur had long ago hurdled the color line, paving the way for a new generation of African American players like Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil and Katrina Adams and Chanda Rubin. But tennis had never seen anything quite like the Williams sisters: beads, cornrows, power, determination. They were a much-needed shot in the arm for a homogenous realm that, despite gains, had been a country-club commodity for far too long.
Despite their history-book achievements on the court, both Venus and Serena had to fight for their due off it, be it equal prize money or the kind of endorsement dollars that seemed to come far easier to others with less polished resumes.
When, with her 18th Slam singles title at the 2014 US Open, she pulled even with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Serena asserted, "I was just a kid with a dream and a racquet. Living in Compton, you know, this never happened before…."
She's won all four majors, seven coming on the lawns of the All England Club, yet it's in Flushing Meadows that that innate drive, that birthright hunger, has shown the most. She's won an Open era-best six titles here, a number equaled only by Evert. She's suffered some painful losses, too. There was the fiery semifinal against eventual champion Kim Clijsters in 2009, the emotion-charged final of 2011 against Sam Stosur. Last year, pursuing that elusive No. 24, she came up short against first-time titlist Naomi Osaka, in a match full of tears from both victor and vanquished. The emotions seen both in victory and defeat are public-facing evidence of what's in her DNA and just how much the record-book pursuit of Margaret Court's numbers means to her.
"When you play a Grand Slam final, there is a lot of emotion," said Serena's coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. "There is a lot of emotion for everyone, including Serena, all the champions. When you play for a record like this one, there is even more. It's called pressure, and I think Serena has had to experience a bit of pressure in her life."
"I am who I am," said Williams during her run to the 2019 US Open final, her 10th at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. "I've always been the person that goes out there and roars and screams and complains and cries and fights."
She would bring that trademark fight again on Saturday in Arthur Ashe Stadium, with only 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu, contesting her first major final, standing between herself and Margaret Court. But victory would remain out of reach. With a 6-3, 7-5 defeat, she has nothing to show for her last four trips to major finals, winless in the last two Wimbledon and US Open title tilts.
Williams, 37, did have her chances. Andreescu had a championship point on her racquet, serving for the match at 5-1, 40-30 in the second set. The American held her ground, then reeled off four straight games to bring the set back on serve and bring the pro-Serena crowd to its collective feet. However, Andreescu—the first Canadian, man or woman, to win a major singles title—was just too steady.
"I believe I could have played better. I believe I could have done more. I believe I could have just been more 'Serena' today," said Williams. "I honestly don't think Serena showed up. I have to kind of figure out how to get her to show up in Grand Slam finals."
"I guess I've got to keep going if I want to be a professional tennis player. And I've just got to just keep fighting through it."
Fight on she will.
