Represented in the powerful shots of players like Coco Gauff or in the growing number of young African Americans entering tennis camps in USAthe influence of Serena Williams it will be around long after you hang up the racket.
The world expects the champion of 23 Grand Slam confirm your withdrawal during the US Openwhich will have the player’s debut this Monday, ending a career in which she set several records that may never be surpassed.
Sports and cultural icon, Williams -40 years old- with his older sister Venusplayed a transformative role that changed the face of tennis around the world.
“I think (Serena) as an athlete, not just as a tennis player, she has been one of the most important athletes in the history of sports,” was the verdict of the Spanish Rafael Nadalthe 22-time Grand Slam singles champion.
the russian Daniil Medvedevreigning US Open champion, was even more forceful: “In 100 years, we will still be talking about Serena Williams”.
Martin Blackmangeneral manager of player development United States Tennis Association (USTA)has witnessed firsthand the effect the rise of the Williams sisters have had on the sport.
Blackman, a former African-American professional tennis player, says Serena and Venus Williams will leave lasting legacies in and out of tennis, highlighting the sisters’ rise from the streets of South The Angels to the top of his sport.
“The first level of (Serena’s) legacy will be that of a woman who, along with her sister and her family, was able to come out of a difficult situation growing up in Compton, without many resources, and play a sport that was still traditionally white and quite expensive. That story of being able to make that journey to be a champion is a first,” Blackman told AFP.
transcending tennis
“Together, the Williams sisters have transcended tennis,” said Martin Blackman.
“I’m an African-American man. When I saw Serena and Venus go up and I saw them confident and comfortable in their skin, I understood that they were really grounded, really safe, really confident. That was a shock to the established tennis society, “he added. general manager.
“African-American girls wearing braids, being themselves, unapologetically. I think there was some resistance at first… For them to do that sent a message to all diverse people, regardless of whether they’re black, Hispanic, gay or lesbian, that you can be successful by being yourself.
The Williams left the message very high:
“You can be authentic and pave your way without compromising who you are. Over time, that’s probably the biggest cultural transformation that they’ve driven within tennis.”
Blackman also commented that the Williams effect is reflected in the increasing number of African-American girls entering USTA tennis camps, along with the increasing number of black female players in the Tour de la WTA.
In the elite, a record 12 African-American women played in the US Open main draw in 2020. African-American tennis players have also increasingly appeared in Grand Slam Finals.
Before the rise of the Williams sisters, Zina Garrison She appeared as the only African-American woman to reach a Grand Slam Final in the Open era.
In the last five years, African-American players like Gauff, Sloane Stephens y Madison Keys have played Slam finals, while the Japanese Naomi OsakaMorewhose father is Haitian-American, has won four Grand Slams.
We follow her: Naomi Osaka
“If you look at everyone who has our skin color, we clearly follow her. I think I’m a product of what she’s done. I wouldn’t be here without Serena, Venus, her whole family,” Japan’s Naomi Osaka said.
Gauff, the 18-year-old from Florida who reached the French Open Final this year, said Serena had been her role model on and off the court.
“Before Serena came along, there wasn’t really a sports icon that looked like me,” Gauff said.
“So growing up I never felt any different because number one in the world was someone who looked like me. Sometimes being a woman, a black woman in the world, you settle for less. I feel like Serena taught me that, watching her He never settled for less.”
For Gauff, Williams’ dominance over several decades is enough to settle any debate about whether she should be considered the GOAT (greatest of all time).
“To me, she will always be considered the GOAT,” Gauf said, “she didn’t dominate one generation; she didn’t dominate for two generations. She dominated for more than three generations.”
Last Grand Slam of the year
Five tennis players will fight to finish at World Number One, with the Spanish Rafael Nadal as the best positioned to assault the throne held by Daniil Medvedev.
The Russian faces a double defense, both of the US Open title and of the first place in the ATP ranking, against four contenders to succeed him: Nadal (3) and his young compatriot Carlos Alcaraz (4), the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas ( 5) and Norway’s Casper Ruud (7).
Rafael Nadal and the total assault
Three years after his last participation, Nadal returns to New York with the opportunity to complete a dream season, but also surrounded by doubts about his physical condition.
If his recent abdominal injury and his chronic foot problem respect him, the Spaniard has in his hands to conquer a 23rd Grand Slam trophy, which would distance him from the absent Novak Djokovic (21), and equal a record (in the Open era) of five US Open trophies, with the icing on the cake of regaining the world N1 that he lost in February 2020.
Nadal is undefeated this year in Grand Slam tournaments (19-0) after lifting the Australian Open and Roland Garros trophies and retiring before the Wimbledon semifinals in July, so as not to aggravate an abdominal tear that still threatens him.
His umpteenth sports resurrection, at age 36, places Nadal in a great position to emerge as leader of the Flushing Meadows ATP, where he does not defend points due to his absence in the last two editions (2020 due to the pandemic and 2021 due to injury).
If Nadal reaches the semi-finals, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Alcaraz or Ruud are bound to win the title to prevent him from regaining N1.
Even stumbling on Tuesday in his debut against Australian Rinky Hijikata (ATP 198), Nadal can lead the ATP as long as none of his four rivals reach the Final.
Medvedev, on the defensive
Daniil Medvedev faces a litmus test at the end of a disappointing season. The Moscow tennis player wasted the momentum of his unexpected victory against Djokovic in the 2021 US Open Final, his first Grand Slam crown, and has only won one trophy this year, that of Los Cabos.
Even so, the Russian resists in the N1 that he snatched from Djokovic this year, in free fall in the ranking for the tournaments that he loses due to his refusal to be vaccinated against covid-19. Medvedev is confident of getting his best game back in New York to become the first player to retain the title since Roger Federer won his fifth in a row in 2008.
Medvedev, 26, shares half of the draw with Tsitsipas and Ruud and would not meet Nadal or Alcaraz until an eventual Final on September 11.
Alcaraz, the teenage dream
At 19 years old, Carlos Alcaraz can become the youngest tennis player to reach the top of the ATP ranking (created in 1973), surpassing the Australian Lleyton Hewitt (20 years old), if he is able to lift his first big trophy.
In a vertiginous ascent, the Spaniard jumped this year from 32nd place to 4th, thanks to a frenetic start to the season in which he won his first two titles in the Master 1000 category (Miami and Madrid).
But the last step is to pass the Grand Slam exam, where he has not yet reached the semifinals. If he gave the big bell in Flushing Meadows he would be the youngest champion since his idol Nadal, winner in 2005 also at 19 years old, although for this he may have to beat him in a hypothetical Semifinals.
Tsitsipas and Ruud, on the prowl
With far fewer options than the rest, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and the norwegian Casper Ruud They also aspire to be the first tennis players from their countries to reach N1.
At 24 years old, Tsitsipas has only reached one Grand Slam Final so far, losing in 2021 to Djokovic at Roland Garros, but he travels to New York with good feelings, after beating Medvedev in Cincinnati and accumulating more victories than anyone (46 ) in this season.
Ruud (23 years old) was Nadal’s victim in the last edition of Roland Garros and Alcaraz in the Miami Masters 1000. With eight of his nine titles won on clay, the Norwegian still has a pending issue to dominate on a hard court like Flushing Meadows.
– With information from Rob Woollard and Guillermo Barros. AFP-
