The iconic champion

The American tennis player, Serena Williams, has been ranked number one player by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for 319 weeks. Not only has she finished as the number one player at the end of the year five times, her accomplishments don’t end there. She has won Grand Slam tournaments 23 times (behind Margaret Court’s 24), making it the most any player has accomplished in the Open tennis era. Like her male counterpart, Roger Federer, she is considered without question one of the best players to grace the tennis courts with such a degree of consistent success. If you take into account her victory in doubles with older sister Venus Williams, the numbers are still high with the two sisters winning 14 Grand Slam tournaments.

King Richard, Will Smith and the focus on the
Oscars

As Serena Williams calls it a day, the focus and celebration should go to her for her perseverance as a tennis player over the years. However, the focus or part of it at least, has gone to the debacle caused by Will Smith when he slapped host Chris Rock for joking about his wife. There is no question that the joke/jibe was not funny. But when Will Smith walked to the stage and slapped Chris Rock, months later that particular incident has overshadowed the real Serena Williams. It was bad enough that the film was called King Richard, based on Serena and Venus Williams’ father rather than the two sisters as protagonists, the slap by Will, seen and heard around the world was all anyone could and can still talk about. Smith’s Oscar victory and everything that followed was about the Smith family. Meanwhile, Serena Williams’ retirement remained overshadowed.

Serena Williams’ legacy

While Will Smith was taking the wrong course of action for a so-not-funny joke, others like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer - two of the greatest rivals in men’s tennis - acknowledged her heights as a player as news broke of Serena retiring.

Rafael Nadal commented that though it is a selfish desire, he doesn’t want the 40-year-old Serena to retire. Returning to the sport for the first time in years, Nadal said on the sidelines of Cincinnati Masters: “She is one of the greatest sports [people] of all time,” adding she was responsible for “plenty of memories” for him. “Of course, from a selfish point of view it’s sad that she’s leaving the tour but, on the other hand, we can’t thank her enough for all the things that she did for our sport. I think she’s an amazing inspiration for a lot of people around the world and I think she deserves to choose whatever works for her better at this stage of her life, so I wish her all the best.”

Roger Federer, often called the greatest player of all time, said that when we talk of the greatest player of all time, man or woman, it is Serena Williams.

Facing body shaming
and sexism

The American player, who doesn’t share the same physical traits as many, if not most, of her peers and predecessors, has been body shamed many, many times. To her credit, in the face of such criticism, Serena continued to play as the ultimate champion and is an athlete who has influenced people to keep going on, even if the odds are against you. She has spoken on the issue of body shaming as well as sexism within the game in a fashion befitting someone who has a record that no one can break. Will it happen in the future? Perhaps, but as of right now, no one is close to her record, the ferocity with which she plays and the courage with which she has faced these issues and addressed them head on.