Serena Williams' Powerful Serve and Example

“Serena Williams’ Powerful Serve and Example”

“A View from the Bleachers”

Victor M. Singletary with Curtis J. Singletary

In her thirties and having enjoyed one of the most impressive and illustrious careers in women’s tennis in the open era, Serena Williams is chasing history as her inevitable retirement from professional looms on the horizon.  With her recent win of this year’s U S Open singles championship, she needs one more Grand Slam title to tie the record of eighteen titles held jointly by Chris Everett Lloyd and Martina Navratilova.  With two additional Grand Slam titles, Serena surpasses those two icons of the game.  Five titles enable Serena to share the record for the most Grand Slam wins with Steffi Graff.  With a sixth title, Serena singly enjoys the peak of tennis’ Mt. Everest.  However, her age which unavoidably results in a decline of skill and persistent health challenges combine to demarcate the remaining years of her professional career.  Hopefully, providence will grace her with the time, health and favor to achieve her heartfelt dreams and goals.  Nonetheless, she is in the late afternoon of her career.  It is accordingly appropriate to begin to consider her legacy which juxtaposes her inimitable athletic expertise most clearly evident in her powerful serve which exceeds one hundred miles per hour and her formidable personal story of beginning on warped courts in Compton, California and culminating in Grand Slam championships.  Her formidable example is an inspiration to girls and boys throughout the global village.

Watching Serena play equates with observing a masterful artist as attacks a canvass with broad brushstrokes and minutes touches and finishes.  Her maniacal ability to put the ball within the line is marvelous.  It is simply amazing!  When she questions a call of the line judge, most fans believe she is correct because of her superlative expertise.  Serena’s fiercely competitive nature compels her to win each point, game, set, match and tournament.  Anyone whether a tennis fan or not can learn the attributes of discipline, focus, excellence, perseverance and resilience from her.  Yet, Serena also possesses the interior wealth of graciousness.  Consistently, after winning a match and particularly a Grand Slam title, she genuinely compliments her opponent.  As she explains her win, Serena alludes to her opponent’s skills and abilities which easily could have reversed the outcome.  Her willingness to honor her fellow players while achieving superlative distinction in the sport equally honors Serena and reveals a sincere and considerate heart.  Her attention to kindness and sportsmanship are the fine hues, colors and touches of an amazing and accomplished artist.

From rugged, deformed and neglected public tennis courts in Compton, California to raising championship trophies in Melbourne, Australia, Paris, France, Wimbledon, England and Flushing Meadows in New York City, what an incredible and impressive odyssey!  It is inconceivable that anyone during Serena’s formative years in the inner city would have bet on her.  Who would imagine a full figured, dark skin African American girl who proudly wore beads in her hair would someday contend for the record of most Grand Slam wins in women’s tennis?  In the early morning hours on those marred Compton Courts, Serena’s ambition and drive empowered her to learn and perfect the game of tennis.  Between shots and games, she undoubtedly raised her mind to an existential and dream-like plane where she observes herself competing for the titles she won subsequently.  Despite living with the triple burden of race, class and gender, Serena persevered and successfully entered an elitist sport where pedigree, culture and appreciation of bourgeois values and mores arguably meant more than athletic acumen and ability.  As she would invariably face disrespectful, demeaning and discouraging remarks in the locker rooms, hallways, press and mail, Serena cultivated the inner gravitas and chutzpah to focus steadfastly upon her dreams and goals.  Superbly from September 1999, the fall in which she won the U S Open, her first Grand Slam victory; she continues to triumph over her competitors, adversities and challenges.   

The violent death of a sister and a life threatening blot clot requiring extensive periods of hospitalization and recuperation symbolize two major detours from Serena’s championship road.  She has spoken very little about the questionable circumstances surrounding her sister’s untimely and most regrettable death.  The divergent choices and paths of siblings who are reared in the same household are as disparate as their unique personalities.  Still, as an enduring maxim from the Robert Redford movie, A River Runs Through It, teaches, “It is possible to love someone completely without completely knowing them.”  Thus, it is appropriate that her fans and the sports media give Serena the space to contemplate her loss and progress in life accepting her sister’s physical absence.  What a sheer joy to celebrate Serena’s win at Wimbledon in 2012 after an elongated time of recovery and rehabilitation when her health and career hung in the balance.  Rightly, the public was unaware of just how serious her condition was.  Still, Serena found the inner resolve to fight her way back onto the high stage of world tennis.  In many ways, her illness became a pilgrimage in which she returned to the Compton courts to begin her incredible odyssey again.  Plausibly, she ignited the ambition and determination that led her to previous heights of accomplishment.  She recommitted herself to her superlative goals realizing the utter necessity of digging more deeply within herself to achieve them.  In a seemingly short period of time, Serena left this abyss of fear, isolation, loss and possible termination of her career.  She traversed the tough terrain through the valley of the shadow of death as she grieved for her sister and steadfastly stared down her own death.  In July of last year, she walked onto Centre Court at Wimbledon and rightly regained her place as the number one women’s tennis player in the world.

Whether a resident of the slums of Calcutta, shanty towns in Capetown South Africa, barrios of Rio de Janiero, poor villages in developing countries or inner cities in the United States, little girls and boys can find encouragement and empowerment from Serena Williams’ powerful example.  She personifies the American dream which holds promise for all residents of the global village.  Commendably, Serena inescapably deals with issues of race and class without allowing the myopic scorn of detractors and insular person to undermine her professional performance or compromise her personal dignity.  Many of the children who idolize Serena probably will face similar challenges as they strive to fulfill their dreams and goals.  She is a living example of the power of an individual to believe in herself against all odds.

Serena Williams' Impressive Example of Perseverance and Graciousness

Serena Williams’ Impressive Example of 

Perseverance and Graciousness

One of the highlights of a recent vacation was my ability and leisure to watch the women’s singles final at this Wimbledon tournament.  Since September 1999 when she won her first major tournament, the U. S. Open, as an enthusiastic, tireless, relenting and hungry seventeen year old competitor with tremendous potential to become one of greatest tennis players, Serena Williams has been one of my athletic and personal heroes.  Commencing her climb to the summits of professional tennis on warped, neglected and seriously deficient courts in Compton, California which the average player and fan of her sport would avoid like the plague, Serena most definitely has pulled herself up by her own bootstraps.  Blending the broad brush strokes of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the Horatio Algiers’ motif of rags to riches, the myth of the American dream and the self-made person with the particularities of the historical dilemmas of race, class and gender, Williams’ compelling story of triumph encourages and empowers anyone with heartfelt dreams and goals.  As a consequence, it was with great joy that I watched her play this year and win the Wimbledon singles titles two years after a blood clot in her lungs almost took her life.  Although she previously won this most prestigious title of international professional tennis four times, this win held extraordinary meaning with particular gratitude for the ability to achieve it.

Interestingly, Williams played superlatively throughout Wimbledon 2012.  She set a record for aces.  Her renowned and feared service was as phenomenal as ever exceeding previous speeds and accuracy.  Her opponents rarely broke her serve.  In fact, they had to contemplate seriously how they would return the ball considering its force, velocity and precision.  Continually, I marvel at her ability to put the ball just inside the line.  When an opponent requests a review of a call, Williams wins the decision in most instances.  The aces are just inside line.  Her opponents barely have a chance to decide how to return the serve.  Her finesses and maturity demonstrates an important lesson of hard-hitting athletics, specifically, and other forms of competition, generally.  One competes fundamentally with one’s self.  You know internally whether you are competing at your highest level of potential and capability.  Beyond the internationally ranked and superlative opponents she faced, Williams challenges herself to exceed yesterday’s victories.  Perhaps, as she played this year’s tournament, she fought against the danger of ignominiously ending her career via an unexpected, unimaginable and debilitating health threat two years ago.  She competed to defeat the understandable depression, self-pity and despair that potentially combined to write “Finis” on the canvass of her storied tennis career.

During the ceremonies in which a member of the British royal family presented the Ladies Singles Trophy from the All England Lawn Club where tennis began, Williams spoke of ordeal.  Her voice cracked and salty tears equitably flowed as Williams contrasted the summits of winning Wimbledon again with the unpromising isolation and mental paralysis of her recuperation two years ago.  First, she thanked Jehovah, the god of her understanding, upbringing and experience for divine grace and permission in allowing her to recover, play and win.  She then expressed heartfelt and touching gratitude to her parents, siblings and other well-wishers and supporters who watched the match in her box.  Their love and support fueled her determination to play again.  Especially, she offered personal gratitude to her older sister who stayed by Serena’s bedside during the long days and even bleaker nights of her hospitalization.  The compassion of faithful presence defies description as its worth is incalculable in the mind and heart of its recipient. 

As it relates to her sister and fellow tennis professional, Venus, Serena jokingly noted that she tied her older sister’s record with five Wimbledon championships of her own.  “I have always wanted to follow Venus in whatever she does.”  In thanking her parents, she gave them tremendous credit as they continually believe in her and her ability to return to the sport she loves.  Essentially, Williams utilized a period for congratulations to demonstrate the powerful love of family and friends as it relates to cultivating perseverance.

Seminal honors rarely emerge in anyone’s life without affection, affirmation and assistance from people who comprise a team of family and friends.  A pitcher in Major League Baseball cannot attain a “no hitter” game without the professional play and assistance of his teammates.  Quarterbacks who obtain “MVP” designations in the Super Bowl do so because of the hard work of their teammates on the offensive line.  Winners of the best actor and best actress Oscars are integral members of a cast.  Whether on a baseball diamond, football field, set of a block buster movies or the most exalted tennis court in the world, Centre Court at Wimbledon, perseverance depends greatly on this significant relational network.  Whereas a person must learn to encourage and empower himself or herself as he or she doggedly pursues heartfelt dreams and personal ambitions, the affection and affirmation of family and friends essential to achievement, success and excellence.  Williams’ victory remarks reflect the invaluable collective contribution of a support network within personal perseverance.

Still, I admire her individual determination to recuperate and return to tennis.  Her illness and subsequent isolation must have felt like a precipitous drop from the summit of her profession.  One day, she is ranked number one in the world; has won all of the four major tournaments; and begun a fashion and jewelry line in addition to buying shares of ownership in a professional football team as she embraces irreversibly her burgeoning celebrity.  Another day, she wakes up in a post-operative recovery room to learn she nearly lost her death and has a long road to recovery before her.  Will she play tennis again professionally?  Will she be able to compete to the superlative degree she had heretofore? Many of these questions occupied her mind as she lay on the couch during a glacial recuperative period. 

Fighting on a mental court, Serena relentlessly countered the crippling mental, emotional and psychological adversity that would have assuredly terminated her career.  She faithfully undertook the hard regimen of physical therapy and training necessary to restore her competitive excellence.  Within two years, she leaves the valley of the shadow of death and ascends back to the pinnacle of victory where the view is fascinating and limitless.  Her remarkable journey from a near death experience to a fifth Wimbledon title reminds me of a paraphrase of quote by President Richard M. Nixon about defeat, resilience and victory.  “Unless you have traveled the valleys of darkness and defeat and disappointment and sorrow, you can never really appreciate the joys and happiness of the vistas of victory.”

Serena Williams' Impressive Example of Perseverance and Graciousness Part Two

Serena Williams’ Impressive Example of 

Perseverance and Graciousness

Part Two

Serena Williams concluded her Wimbledon 2012 victory remarks with words of praise for her opponent, Agnieszka Radwanska.  Williams asked the audience to give Radwanska a round of applause given her tough competitive edge and steel performance in the finals match.  As I listened, I was very impressed by Williams’ graciousness towards Radwanska.  Actually, throughout her interviews during Wimbledon 2012, Serena offered many gracious comments and descriptions relating to the play of her opponents.  Her graciousness and genuineness simply seeped off the television screen.  Serena’s humility and kindness were borne substantially of her recent health and personal challenges.  Yet, her words remind me of the importance of considering someone else particularly in good times.  Coaches advise athletes to use “I” statements when assessing defeat and failure and “We” statements when explaining a win.  Similarly, a superlative player like Serena Williams can appreciate the expertise, discipline and hard work of an opponent even when her play reaches consummate heights.  Her graciousness reflects her true standing as a tennis champion.

My admiration of Serena Williams extends in equal measure to her father, Richard Williams, who is her coach.  The journey from substandard public tennis courts in Compton, California to Wimbledon inclusive of stops in Melbourne, Australia, Paris, Francis and Flushing Meadows, New York began as a dream in his mind and heart.  He deserves credit as the pioneer of the Williams tennis dynasty which has won ten of the last thirteen Wimbledon titles.  His stalwart support of both of his daughters despite a very public divorce from their mother and the tragic death of one of their older sisters is very commendable.  His pivotal role in laying the foundation for Serena’s and Venus’ success is an impressive example of good parenting.  Cynically, one could suggest he lives vicariously through them.  More reasonably, one concludes he graciously and perhaps providentially saw their potential with the eyes of his heart and devoted his time and talents to encouraging and empowering them to actualize their divine gifts and potential.  When future sports historians record this era of professional tennis, assuredly they will grant him more than a footnote in any analysis or summary of his daughters unparalleled careers.  Beyond the dedication and faithfulness of a loving and supportive father who catapulted his daughters to fame and excellence, he indirectly expanded the horizons of countless aspiring athletes for generations to come.

A final quality of perseverance and graciousness that I celebrate in Serena Williams and her family is their refusal to allow race to define or limit them.  Throughout the nearly fourteen years she has played professionally, I have never heard her discuss race as a factor in her game.  I can only imagine some of the remarks players, their families and fans have made since the time the Williams sisters assumed dominance of professional tennis.  I also cannot believe they have not heard some of these derogatory comments in the locker room, hallway or on the court.  However, they have not allowed anything negative to affect them.  They focused with equivocation on exceeding their prior performance.  The irrelevant opinions and uninformed thoughts of other people do not matter.  Still, they retain their poise and elegance in interviews and off the court.  I greatly desire more of this internal resolve and chutzpah.  Self-acceptance and confidence do not result necessarily in arrogance or haughtiness.  Serena’s ability in exceling despite the triple historical burdens of race, gender and class without defining herself through this prism is an incredible example of self-assurance for anyone pursuing heartfelt dreams against tremendous odds.  She personifies how graciousness and perseverance are the means of success.

I hope Serena maintains the incline of her ascension back to the number one ranking.  As she prepares for the next chapter of her life considering she is thirty years old, conceivably she will commit to sharing her success with young aspirants in tennis.   Sharing time, talents, treasure and temperament with children and youth is one of the most effect ways of influencing the future.  Deposits within their minds, hearts and characters last for a lifetime.  Moreover, teachers, coaches and other role models indirectly influence anyone whom their students teach, coach and mentor.  In addition to sharing her secrets of service, aces, volley returns, analyzing an opponent, exploiting other players’ weaknesses and many other effective techniques for winning, Serena Williams will be able to teach future tennis players and other athletes the codes and character of genuine sportsmanship.  Undoubtedly, she will tell them acquiring these attributes begins with developing perseverance in difficult times and showing graciousness at all times.