The Final Pursuit

For a while there, it looked like September 12, 2015 was shaping up to be one of the best and most memorable days ever. Earlier in the week, Petra Kvitová and Victoria Azarenka went down. Then, in the first semifinal on September 11, Flavia Pennetta upset Simona Halep. All Serena had to do was beat Roberta Vinci, a player who had never won more than four games in any of the eight sets played in the four matches between them. Then, on Saturday the 12th, my sister were going to spend the morning and early afternoon driving to Cincinnati before checking into a hotel to watch Serena complete the calendar year Grand Slam by beating Pennetta before seeing Janet Jackson in concert. That’s a pretty good day. Instead…

When Roberta Vinci served out the third set on September 11 and Serena’s calendar year Grand Slam quest was over, I…it would be a lie to say I was hurt. There was, and is, too much shock for hurting. I didn’t know what to do; I didn’t know how to take it. My wife and I did not speak about it. My sister and I have never discussed it. I haven’t spoken about that match, that day, or that tournament with anyone. As I write this roughly on the final night of January 2016, there is still no speaking about it. There is still no hurt. There is, I think, only shock.



Serena Williams’ 2014 season was characterized by stress and disappointment in her quest to equal Chris Evert and Martina Navrátilová’s mark of eighteen Grand Slam singles titles. Although she remained at the top of the WTA rankings all season, Serena lost before the quarterfinals of each of the year’s first three Grand Slam events: in Melbourne, she lost to Ana Ivanović in the fourth round; she fell to Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round of the French Open; and at Wimbledon, Alizé Cornet defeated Serena in the third round.

At the US Open, Serena held on and won that eighteenth major championship. Then she was able to relax a little going into the Australian Open in 2015. She had a little trouble with Muguruza and Elina Svitolina, but it wasn’t a terribly stressful tournament. Still, Serena Williams’ 2015 season was one of struggle.

When the French Open began, there was a sense that Serena was all in to win it. After 2014’s flameout versus Muguruza, she had something to prove to herself. We’ve seen her really struggle through tournaments when she really, really wants them. The first three Grand Slams of 2014 are just the most recent example of this. Remember the 2013 French Open when she was trying to win it for only the second time? The draw opened up for her, but Serena turned Roland Garros 2015 into a gauntlet. She lost five sets, an Open Era women’s record, during her title run. From the second round on—with the exception of the quarterfinal versus Sara Errani—Serena had to talk (yell and scold) herself through each match. She wanted it badly. Too badly. The stress was visible on her face. The tension was palpable through the television screen. Every round, Serena’s French Open dreams were on the precipice of imploding. But she is Serena. And tennis has no clock. She worked for it. She got it. That’s when the widespread Grand Slam talk began.

In her championship press conference after defeating Lucie Šafářová at the 2015 French Open, Serena stated that she was rooting for Novak Djokovic to defeat Stanislas Wawrinka in the next day’s men’s final because she did not want to be the only one going into Wimbledon and the US Open with Grand Slam pressure. By bringing it up, Serena acknowledged that she was thinking about it, that she was going for it. Sure, every player opens the season with the Grand Slam as a possibility. In 2015, Serena Williams was actually going for it. And even though she shut down talk of it down at Wimbledon, it was there. She wanted it.



For the past several years, both Venus and Serena Williams have spoken publicly of their desire to play in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Ever since they began speaking of it, I have wondered it those Olympics would be it for the sisters, especially Serena.

After the disappointment that ended 2015, I was interested to see how world #1 would play this year. From the first point of her first round match against Camila Giorgi, it was a more relaxed and serene Serena Williams. Even though both sets against Giorgi were tight, the stressed Serena was not there. From that first match, I knew what the 2016 Serena Williams would be.

I think the Grand Slam run of 2015 was Serena Williams’ final pursuit. She wanted to catch Evert and Navrátilová and their eighteen Grand Slams. She’s done that. She wanted the calendar year Grand Slam. She fell short. From all of her talk over the past several years, I get the sense that Steffi Graf’s twenty-two and Margaret Court’s twenty-four are not on Serena’s radar. Sure, she’d like to win more Grand Slams, but I don’t think reaching those two marks are a quest. Instead, I think she wants to win each tournament as they come.

From a big picture perspective, I think Serena’s history chasing is over. I believe she is happy with what she’s done. And I believe that, more than anything else, 2016 is her victory lap. She has not announced anything, and this is just speculation by me, but I think Serena is preparing to walk away. The French Open begins in May. Then there is one last Wimbledon, the Rio Olympics, and one final run in Flushing Meadow. All the while, I expect to see Serena play happy, free tennis. If she gets to twenty-two, great. If she doesn’t, I think she’ll be as happy and content as she was in her speech yesterday in Rod Laver Arena. The final pursuit is over, and for the rest of this year, we get to see the great Serena Williams enjoy the moment.