Decade's Best: 2012 Wimbledon
(Yeah, after that, we sort of *expected* what happened in London.)
Putting on a serving display the likes of which women's tennis history had never seen before, Williams quite literally served her way into the Ladies championship match. The most dominating single shot in women's tennis -- probably ever -- saved Serena's skin in matches against Zheng Jie (3rd Round, w/ a Wimbledon record 23 aces helping to stave off the '08 semifinalist's 3 BP for a 3-1 lead in the 3rd) and Yaroslava Shvedova (4th Rd.) in tight, long 3rd sets (9-7 & 7-5, respectively) when the rest of her game was letting her down. But she successfully tightrope-walked over those dual precipices of elimination, and by the time she played defending champion Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals, a more-focused Serena was barely giving an inch in ANY part of her game. Against reigning AO champ Victoria Azarenka in the semis, even a fine version of the Belarusian's game wasn't enough to take a set off Williams, who fired 24 more aces (a NEW Wimbledon record) in just *two* sets. She entered the final as a heavy favorite. It was easy to casually understand why Serena had made it so far into the fortnight, for power and destruction were her game, and such a two-headed hydra was hard to miss.
Though Aga Radwanska rallied to force a 3rd set in the final, Williams pulled away to win 6-1/5-7/6-2, picking up her third Ladies title in four years and becoming the first woman over 30 years of age to win Wimbledon since Martina Navratilova in 1990. While defeating the #2 (Azarenka), #3 (Radwanska) and #4 (Kvitova) seeds in the event, she launched a record 102 aces in the tournament, more than even any player in the *men's* draw with its best-of-five set format.
Serena then joined with sister Venus to win the doubles, too.
After losing to Razzano in Paris and then sweeping the singles and doubles at the AELTC, Williams would go to win both crowns at the Olympics (also played at Wimbledon) a month later, as well as the U.S. Open singles and WTA Finals. Her RG win the next year gave her three slam titles out of four, and by the end of 2013 she'd won four of six.
Her 2012 runner-up result would be as close as Aga Radwanska would ever get to achieving her slam dream. The seventh player to win the SW19 girls title *and* reach the Ladies final during her career (Genie Bouchard would become the eighth two years later) -- only Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo have won both -- she was the first Polish player to reach a slam singles final. After entering the fortnight as the only player ranked in the Top 15 without a slam semifinal appearance in her career, Radwanska was one set away from the title and the #1 ranking.
She called the experience the "best two weeks" of her life.
What I said about her (and The Radwanska, the "malevolent entity"/alter ego/sidekick/protector/chaos maker that seemed to accompany her climb to the top) back in 2012...
" As far as (Serena's) final opponent, 23-year old Pole Agnieszka Radwanska, goes, though, it takes a little patience to figure her out. Ranked #3 in the world, and with a shot to elevate to #1 by winning the Wimbledon title, A-Rad's game is characterized by a secret bag of tricks and magic dust, directed by a steel-trap, creative mind that sometimes seems to expertly build a solid skyscraper out of something that often resembles a pile of flimsy popsicle sticks. Unless you watch closely. In reality, Radwanska is something of a mad genius, throwing in spins and variety on what seems like a whim, but is really more of a well-thought out plan (little "p") that she manages to imagine and then figure out how to actualize... with the entire process sometimes occurring between the time a ball leaves the face of her racket and when it reaches that of her opponent.
Of course, A-Rad is something of a "hydra," too. On one hand you have Agnieszka. But, on the other, you have The Radwanska. An alter ego of tremendous power and drive, and one with a Plan (capital "P") for world domination, by any means necessary. And darned if It didn't almost pull it off at this Wimbledon, too. Since Aga stepped back a bit from her father's coaching following last year's Wimbledon, ultimately working with Polish Fed Cup coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, she's added some power to an accurate serve. And The Rad provides the willingness to pull it out in big moments. After years of too-defensive, wait-for-an-error play, since last summer, she's shown an occasional knack for stepping into one of the rallies she often controls with her wide array of shots and actually ending it with a winner rather than hoping for a mistake on the other side of the net. Oh, sometimes The Rad side of Aga enjoys pulling an opponent around on a string until she shoots herself in the foot out of frustration -- just ask Angie Kerber -- but it's the unpredictability of precisely when The Radwanska will strike with something bigger that has enabled A-Rad to wrap up a series of big titles over the past year and quickly climb up the rankings after having seemed to "stall out" somewhere around #10-12 at this time last year. In The Quarter That Time Forgot, Radwanska kept her head down, did what she's learned to do, and both plans worked out quite nicely for the first-time slam finalist and her "other self." Well, to a point. In many ways, the final WAS a "two against one" affair. It just wasn't fair... for Agnieszka or The Radwanska. Serena didn't really give them too much of a chance, though the two DID find a way, after a rough start, to make things interesting before the day was through. "
A year later, "The Rad" seemed to break away from Aga, seeking to cause wanton destruction anywhere it could.
In the end, even Aga herself wasn't immune to Its wayward aims.
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Late in the day, under the roof, Serena returned to win the Ladies' Doubles title with Venus, defeating the Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka 7-5/6-4 in the final. Venus closed things out with an ace. It was their 13th slam doubles championship as a duo, and their 5th at Wimbledon. With Serena's earlier singles victory added in, she and Venus both joined the "5 & 5 Club," becoming the sixth and seventh women to win at least five Wimbledon crowns in both singles and doubles.
The Williams sisters' win over #6-seeded Hlackova/Hradecka had been preceded by a semifinal dispatching of #1-ranked Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond. The unseeded siblings also defeated the #4 (Kirilenko/Petrova), #10 (Kops-Jones/Spears) and #13 (Mattek-Sands/Mirza) seeds.
The sisters went on later that summer to win the Olympic Gold in the London Olympic tennis event held at the All-England Club, as well.
It was their third Gold in women's doubles, and (w/ Serena's singles Gold) tied them with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario as the overall tennis medal leaders since the sport's reintroduction to the games in 1988, with four each. Brit Kitty McKane won five during in the original incarnation of the sport's Olympic past, which ended in 1924. In 2016, Venus picked up #5 -- a MX doubles Silver -- to tie McKane for the all-time lead, and move into sole possession of first for the current run.
Defending WD champs Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebtonik had lost in the 2nd Round to Flavia Pennetta & Francesca Schiavone. Hlavackova/Hradecka's win over Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci in the QF prevented what would have been the only slam match-up involving all four members of the great Italian Quartet that ultimately joined forces to win three Fed Cup crowns and claim two slam singles titles, with each member of the group playing in at least one slam singles final (after *no* Italian woman had done so before them). They *did* meet twice in regular tour events in their careers, with Pennetta/Schiavone winning on hard court in the Dubai 1st Round in 2011, and Errani/Vinci doing so on clay in the 2012 Barcelona final.
Raymond teamed with Mike Bryan in mixed doubles to claim her eleventh and final slam crown (6 WD, 5 MX), picking up a third title at Wimbledon to go with her '99 MX and '01 doubles wins. She and Bryan defeated Elena Vesina & Leander Paes in the final, the 22nd of 23 slam finals (she'd also reach the Wimbledon MX final in '13 w/ Bruno Soares) in her career.
In another chapter of a running tiff throughout the slam season in '12, Vesnina and Liezel Huber met on the court once more. They'd initially been involved in a heated dispute in the Australian Open QF over whether a ball had bounced twice before being hit by Huber on a MP held by Vesnina & Sania Mirza, a denial which infuriated the pair and brought partner Raymond to tears (she later apologized to Mirza & Vesnina for Huber's actions). Since then, Vesnina had already ended Huber's slam run in the Roland Garros mixed competition.
In the Wimbledon doubles QF, Vesnina & Ekaterina Makarova faced off with Huber & Raymond and, wouldn't you know it, Huber again found herself on the spot, denying being hit by a ball during the match. Vesnina had fired a shot directly at Huber, who'd been standing near the net, and she'd blocked it back with the throat of her racket. She and Raymond soon won the point. Video confirmed Huber's account, and she later said of the Russian, who'd again vociferously complained to the umpire, "She’s clearly moody and was fighting with her dad on the court, and if you are not having a good day I would also try and find a way to win -- we all want to win."
Huber & Raymond won the match, then lost to Venus & Serena in the semis. In the MX semis, Vesnina & Paes defeated Huber & Bob Bryan.
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A year after thrilling a bevy of Wimbledon greats, who pretty much all declared that she'd eventually join them on the sport's mythical elevated stage of honor, defending singles champion Petra Kvitova was bounced in the QF by Serena Williams, 6-3/7-5. Williams had her "game face" on two years after defeating the Czech in the semis, winning 19 of 24 serve points in the 1st set in their first meeting since that match in 2010. Kvitova had just one break point chance in the match, which Williams promptly saved with a big serve.
They haven't met in a slam since.
Kvitova had barely made the date to face off with Williams, having been forced to rally from a 6-4 and a 2nd set break deficit vs. Francesca Schiavone in the 3rd Round. After a rain delay at 6-4/4-4, Kvitova had emerged from the lockerroom to win nine of eleven games and get the victory.
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In the 3rd Round, Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova produced the first "Golden Set" at a major in the Open era, winning the opening set against Sara Errani without losing any of its twenty-four points. After her 6-0/6-4 victory, she admitted that she hadn't even realized what she'd done as it was happening. The only other Golden Set in WTA/ATP main draw competition was by Bill Scanlon in a regular men's tour event in 1983.
Venus Williams' doubles title run with Serena had been something of an "in-tournament" comeback for the then 32-year old, who was still learning how to deal with her September 2011 diagnosis of the rare autoimmune disorder Sjögren's syndrome, which causes fatigue and joint pain (and explained the limited durability and aching body issues that Williams had experienced for a while). She'd withdrawn from the U.S. Open that summer, citing the diagnosis, and the '12 Wimbledon was just her second slam since.
After a 2nd Round loss in Paris, she fell 6-1/6-3 in the 1st Round at SW19 to Elena Vesnina in a listless and physically lethargic outing (she opened with five straight service faults, and served at under a 40% clip for the match). It was her first one-and-out performance at Wimbledon since her debut in 1997. This was also the first time she'd been unseeded at the event since her maiden appearance. Naturally, as was the case often at the start of the decade, Williams was questioned about whether it would be her last Wimbledon. "I don't have time to be negative," she said, "It doesn't feel good."
Williams wouldn't reach the second week of a major again until 2015, but would then do so ten times over a 12-slam stretch from 2015-17 that included her ninth appearance in the Ladies singles final at SW19 (of course, she found Serena waiting there for her). As the 2019 version of Wimbledon begins, Venus is set to make her 22nd appearance at age 39.
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Draw notes:
* - for the third time in her last three appearances (DNP 2010) at Wimbledon, '11 semifinalist Sabine Lisicki upset the reigning Roland Garros champion, defeating #1-seeded Maria Sharapova in the Round of 16. The German had previously knocked off Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2009 and Li Na in 2011.
* - Victoria Azarenka, who'd reached #1 after winning her maiden slam title at the Australian Open in January, advanced to her second straight Wimbledon semifinal, where she lost to Serena Williams. Maria Sharapova had returned to #1 for the first time since shoulder surgery with her win at Roland Garros, and topped the SW19 draw for the first time ever.
Tsvetana Pironkova, after SF and QF results the past two years, was unseeded in the '12 Wimbledon draw. She faced off with Sharapova in the 2nd Round. Despite leading 3-0 and 4-1 in the 1st set, and holding SP at 5-2 and 5-4, as well as three more at 6-5 40/love, Pironkova dropped the opening set in a TB that began with her missing an open court shot at the net on the very first point. Despite incoming darkness, the match continued until Sharapova had taken a break lead at 3-1 in the 2nd set.
Day 2 of the match began with Sharapova DF'ing and dropping serve. In the 2nd set TB, Sharapova had three more DF and saw Pironkova prevail, knotting the match despite being 1-for-8 on BP chances in the first two sets. The Russian righted things in the 3rd, winning the set at love.
Her loss in the next round to Lisicki opened the door for Azarenka, whose semifinal result allowed her to reclaim the #1 ranking after Wimbledon. She stayed there for thirty-two weeks until she was replaced by Serena Williams the following February. Serena held the spot for thirty one months until Angelique Kerber took over the spot in September 2016.
A month later in '12, the three-headed monster that dominated the top of the women's game in the early years of the 2010's did what they were *supposed* to do: they swept the medal stand at the London Olympics, with Serena picking up Gold, Sharapova Silver and Azarenka Bronze (Vika also took home MX Gold w/ Max Mirnyi).
* - for her part, Kerber had her breakthrough Wimbledon performance in 2012. After losing in the 1st Round in three of her four previous appearances, the German reached the semifinals. It was her second major semi in less than a year, following up on her maiden final four result at the U.S. Open in '11 (which had come after four consecutive slam 1st Round exits).
In the QF, Kerber led countrywoman Lisicki 6-3/5-3 and held 3 MP, only to see Lisicki win a TB (taking the 9-7 breaker after Kerber had stopped a really mid-stream on SP to challenge a call). Kerber was up a break twice in the 3rd, but it was Lisicki who served for the match at 5-3 after Kerber's DF had given her a break lead. Kerber then broke Lisicki in back-to-back service games and won the set 7-5 on her fifth MP to improve to 5-0 in their head-to-head.
Lisicki has still yet to defeat Kerber, losing all six match-ups.
Kerber came up short of the final vs. Radwanska in the semis, but four years later would succeed at SW19 where the Pole had failed.
* - meanwhile, 2011 girls champ Ash Barty made her Wimbledon debut. The 16-year old lost a 1st Round match to Roberta Vinci.
2010 SW19 girls doubles champ Sloane Stephens also made her Wimbledon debut. She defeated qualifier Karolina Pliskova, also making her debut at the All-England Club, in the 1st Round, then outlasted Petra Cetkovska in a three-setter a round later. In the 3rd set, Stephens fell behind love/30 in four straight service games, but held serve each time to win 6-3. She lost a round later to Lisicki, dropping the 1st after having served at 5-4, then failing to convert a BP at 1-1 in the 3rd. After squandering the opportunity, Stephens was broken for 3-1 as Lisicki ran off nine straight points en route to a 6-2 win.
* - Timea Babos, who'd joined with Stephens to win the Wimbledon girls doubles in 2010 (the third of four GD slam finals she reached that year, winning three), recorded her first career slam MD singles victory in just her second MD appearance in a major, a win over Melanie Oudin. Babos would go on to win multiple slam doubles titles and reach doubles #1. Seven years later, though, the Hungarian has still only advanced to the 3rd Round of singles in a major once in 27 career MD appearances.
* - Austrian Tamira Paszek reached her second straight QF, rising once again during the grass court season. She saved two MP in the 1st Round vs. #7 Caroline Wozniacki (who went 0-2 on grass after having declared, "I believe I can win Wimbledon," exiting SW19 with her worst slam result since her '07 slam debut at RG), and saw Yanina Wickmayer serve for the match in the 3rd Round. In all, at Wimbledon and Eastbourne in '12, Paszek recorded three Top 10 wins. Five of her eleven career Top 10 victories came on grass, including three at Wimbledon between 2007-12.
* - qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 1999, won her first MD matches at SW19 since 2000. In the 2nd Round, she upset #9 seed Marion Bartoli 6-4/6-3. The Croat's 3rd Round finish was significant, as Lucic produced only three better slam results in her career: her Wimbledon and Australian Open semis eighteen years apart (1999/2018), and a Round of 16 at the U.S. Open in 2014.
In 2013, Bartoli would win the Wimbledon Ladies title.
* - an unseeded Kim Clijsters played her final Wimbledon, having previously announced that she would retire following the U.S. Open after injuries had once again become an issue in the Belgian's "second career" after coming out of retirement in 2009 and adding three slam titles to the one she'd won in her previous stint on tour.She lost in the Round of 16 to Kerber, 6-1/6-1, after having gotten two wins over seeded players (#18 Jankovic 1st Rd., #12 Zvonareva 3rd Rd.).
Clijsters would end her career with a 3rd Round exit at the U.S. Open later that summer.
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For the British woman, a new day dawned in 2012. They just didn't know it yet.
Laura Robson (again a WC) lost in the 1st Round to Francesca Schiavone (but then joined w/ Dominic Inglot to upset MX defending champs Benesova/Melzer in the 2nd Rd., and a month later won MX Silver w/ Andy Murray at the Olympics), while Elena Baltacha (vs. Petra Kvitova) fell in the 2nd. Heather Watson won a 1st Round match over Benesova in a contest that was belatedly moved to Centre Court late in the day. She was the first British woman to win a match there in twenty-seven years.
In the 3rd Round, though, the Tennis Gods (or was it something else?) had the last laugh, as Watson fell 6-0/6-2 vs. Aga Radwanska -- on Centre Court -- in a match in which the Pole's string of 20 straight games with an UE finally ended at 6-0/4-0.
But the big news (eventually) was that this was the first Wimbledon as a Brit for Australia-born Johanna Konta, who'd finally become a British citizen in May after her family had moved to the U.K. from Down Under when she was 14. Now representing GBR, Konta was given a MD wild card and the 21-year old made her slam debut at SW19 vs. Christina McHale. After McHale had twice failed to serve out the match in the 3rd set, play was suspended at 7-7. In her third attempt, McHale finally served out the match -- coming back from love/40 down -- to win 10-8 in the deciding set.
Konta would lose in the 1st Round at SW19 every year from 2012-15. But in 2017 she reached the semifinals, becoming the first British woman to do so since Virginia Wade in 1978. She climbed into the Top 5 that July. With a previous slam SF at the Australian Open in 2016, Konta also reached the semis at Roland Garros in 2019, the same season she led the British Fed Cup team to its greatest success in 26 years.
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A year after winning the girls doubles, Genie Bouchard took the girls singles crown at the All-England Club, becoming the first Canadian (girl or boy) to be crowned a slam singles champ. She defeated Elina Svitolina in a 6-2/6-2 final, and also defended her doubles win (teaming with Taylor Townsend, a year after winning with Grace Min) with a final victory over Belinda Bencic & Ana Konjuh.
Soon after, Felip Peliwo took the boys title to become the *second* Canadian junior champion. Two years later, Bouchard would reach the Ladies final.
She wasn't the only Canadian girl to achieve in the singles, either. Francoise Abanda had upset top-seeded Townsend (who swept the AO singles/doubles crowns in January) in the 3rd Round, as well as Donna Vekic in the QF, to reach the semis, where she lost to Svitolina.
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In what turned out to be her final slam appearance, Esther Vergeer failed to reach a final in a major for the first time in her career. Having won the Wimbledon's wheelchair doubles title in each of the competition's first three years, Vergeer (partnering Marjolein Buis, after winning the previous two titles with Sharon Walraven) fell in the semifinals to Jiske Griffioen & Aniek Van Koot. The Dutch pair, runners-up to Vergeer/Walraven in '11, then went on to win the title with a victory over Brits Lucy Shuker & Jordanne Whiley in the final.
Vergeer's final slam match came in the form of a consolation 3rd/4th match-up in which she and Buis defeated Walraven and Annick Severans.
As is the case every four years, due to the 2012 Paralympics competition that summer the U.S. Open wheelchair event was not held. In the London games, Vergeer swept the singles (def. both Griffioen and Van Koot) and doubles (w/ Buis, def. Griffioen/Van Koot) Golds to close out her unprecedented wheelchair career, giving her a WC tennis record seven Paralympic Golds (4 singles/3 doubles) and one Silver (doubles).
Still not having announced a comeback bid, Martina Hingis was back once again in the Wimbledon Legends competition, teaming with Lindsay Davenport to defend their title. For the second straight year, the duo defeated Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna in the final.
SEEN AT THE AELTC:
Prince Charles, visiting the AELTC for the first time since 1970, and Camilla Parker Bowles...
Pippa and Kate Middleton...
Grace Jones...
The Beckhams (and Mr.Laver)...
Players under towels, hiding from the cold...
Maria Kirilenko's (then) fiance, hockey living legend Alexander Ovechkin...
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If you had to depend on any woman in the world to win a single tennis match on any given day or night, your best bet, after all these years, after all the ups-and-downs and great days and bad, after all the controversy and, lately, some uncharacteristic losses on big stages, and after all the over-eager pronouncements that she might never win another major championship, that woman would STILL be one Miss Serena Williams... the new (and "old") Wimbledon champion.
Again. After all these years.
"Well, I'm just happy. I'm so happy to be playing. I'm so happy to be on the court. I feel like this is where I belong. I mean, maybe I don't belong in a relationship. Maybe I don't belong somewhere else. But I know for a fact I do belong on this tennis court." - Serena Williams
Coming into this Wimbledon, Williams had gone through the ringer and come back out since her last slam win in London two years ago. An unfortunate trip to a German restaurant, which she left with a bloody foot that would ultimately require two surgeries. The resulting hematoma and embolism that placed her in the hospital, endangered her career and put her life in jeopardy. And then there's the mysterious "other things" that both Serena and Venus have talked about that the younger Williams has had to deal with during the period that we still don't know the actual details of (perhaps we'll find out one day in her tell-all autobiography?). She'd flashed her old dominant form on hard court and clay over the past year, only to crash out of slams in uncharacteristic ways, being blistered in a final by Sam Stosur in New York, then ousted in the 1st Round in Paris by Virginie Razzano in her worst slam result ever.
After Roland Garros, I piped in with the thought that Serena losing so early in Paris likely assured that she'd be winning Wimbledon the following month. At least that was how the old Serena would have handled things. But was the 2012 version of her "the old Serena," or just an "old" Serena. 30-year old tennis players haven't always been treated kindly by tennis over the past two decades, and Williams had surpassed the big "3-0h" since she won her thirteenth slam crown at the All-England Club in 2010.
At this Wimbledon, though, after some of the same sort of growing pains that have accompanied so many of her other slam victories, we found out which Serena we were dealing with... as did the rest of women's tennis. And, as usual, it was an awesome sight to behold.
Serena got to within a single point of a 5-3 lead (in the 2nd set), but Radwanska's backhand down-the-line winner on game point turned the tide of the set. As Serena tightened just a bit, The Radwanska grabbed hold of Aga's racket and began to try to work Williams' last nerve. A Serena error game Radwanska her first break point of the match. Another long Serena shot made the score 4-4.
Suddenly, Agnieszka put her Rad shoes on. She started controlling rallies with her fascinating combination of spins, pinpoint accuracy and anticipation leading to a sudden winner of her own or a shot that simply twisted Serena into an error. Maybe all those melons The Rad had destroyed at Radwanska Abbey over the past two weeks didn't die in vain, after all. As Williams began to be forced into mistakes, A-Rad took over. Rather than being handed the runner-up plate, she was forcing a 3rd set. She held for 6-5, then went up 30/love on Williams' serve. Serena committed a backhand error and fell behind 15/40, then saw her "sure" win slip away and become a 7-5 set in Radwanska's favor. Over her last four service games, the Pole lost a total of four points.
Williams was tired of foolin' around. Where every Radwanska opponent at this Wimbledon had allowed her to keep them down, Serena came out firing even BIGGER shots. In game #4, she opened with an ace. Then another. And another. And another. Four thundering blows to the jaw of The Radwanska and the (still) flat-footed Aga. The score was 2-2 (in the 3rd), but for all intents and purposes it was all over save for the child-like glee with which Serena would later hold the Venus Rosewater dish.
Serving for the championship, her first in twenty-four months, Williams slugged another ace and a service winner to get to 40/15 and double match point. She only needed one point. She didn't end things with the expected ace, but her backhand winner from the baseline more than did the job. With the title secure, Williams fell onto her back and put her hands over her face. After losing just three points on serve in the final set, Serena won 6-1/5-7/6-2.
After the match, Radwanska (or was it PARTLY The Rad?) smoke with a hoarse voice and underlying emotion. They called the fortnight the "best two weeks" of their lives. After putting up a valiant effort against a force even greater than the combination of their own, what was evident from their play in this match was the same thing that we've been forced to learn over the past year: The Radwanska -- and A-Rad -- will live to fight and slay another day.
In the end, Serena's predictability won out over Radwanska's stealthily unpredictable nature. After the worst grand slam of her life, Williams came back and grabbed maybe her most precious... the one that came after she'd questioned whether its like would ever come her way again. When she's questioned, she provides an emphatic answer. When she's counted out, she's in. When it's said that it's over, she says that it has only just begun. Try to push her out the door, and she pushes it open just a little wider. Climbing into the stands to hug her family, friends and team after her win, it was apparent that THIS title will stand out from many of her others, when all is said and done.
While a WTA world with The Radwanska sitting atop it might have been a wild notion to ponder (or fear?), Serena made sure it never got to that point. "Woman of Steel Saves the World" is how the Daily Planet might declare it in Metropolis. But, really, Williams is just "Serena"... she only seems larger than life sometimes because no else who has come this way before has ever been quite like her.
After once resembling a juggernaut of fierceness, Serena now embodies the notion that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And considering her history, think about THAT for a moment.
Oh, brother... err, I mean Sister.
* - "I don't have time to be negative. It doesn't feel good." - Venus Williams, after her 1st Round loss
* - "Good luck with that." - Victoria Azarenka, on the rumored notion of Wimbledon using a decibel meter to measure on-court grunting with the goal of eventually forcing players (women) to be quieter during matches
* - "(I'm) too old. Too old to play the game I want to play physically. I've put my body through enough strain and everything. The whole lifestyle, that's what I'm dealing with now, the lifestyle I've had for the last 15, 20 years. It's been great. I wouldn't change a thing." - Kim Clijsters
* - "Today I laid a golden egg." - Yaroslava Shvedova, after her "Golden Set"
* - "These are the best two weeks of my life." - Aga Radwanska
* - "The older I get, the better I serve." - Serena Williams
posted by Todd.Spiker @ 5:57 PM
3 Comments:
An interesting side note about Shvedova's golden set: Earlier in her career (I forget the year), she was one point from achieving a golden set, which must have been really frustrating.
She seems to have dropped off the end of the earth. I remember she had that ankle injury but that was a couple of years ago. I don't know what's going on with her now.
If I am not mistaken, Shvedova had a baby within the last year. No clue if she is coming back.
Serena was at her peak in 2012-13. I am trying off the top of my head to remember if there is any athlete that has has two distinct peaks a decade apart. Tom Brady has just peaked from 2001-18.
Compare Serena's 2002-03 to her 2012-13. Which was better?
Ah, you’re right—she did have a baby. I forgot all about that.
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