Everybody yearns to be eternal, to protect their turf, to think they are the core of the narrative – especially if you’re a star, a dahlin’ diva, a legend in your own time.
Many a Hollywood diva (from Betty Davis, Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn to Judy Garland, Diana Ross, Britney, JLo and Beyonce) have imploded at the arrival of an extra pound or the appearance of a new wrinkle. And the emergence of a driven young star – a pretender or wannabe – quickly becomes a full-blown crisis.
Oh dear, the sky is falling.
In sports, the wizened old pitcher throws a high hard one past the hot new, full-of-himself “rook.” In the NFL, the flashy new runner – the No. 1 pick with all the moves – is greeted with punishing, step-your-game-up tackles – high AND low. And in the NBA, the whole (“not so fast/wait your turn”) mindset is institutionalized. Rookies never get the call.
In men’s tennis, stars have always resisted the rise of phenoms. Johnny Mac long refused to accept Boris Becker’s brilliance. Ivan Lendl famously dismissed Andre Agassi as merely “a forehand and a haircut.” Andre clearly raised his level when facing fresh-faced Americans.
But all this in the men’s game is modest compared with the (“I’m the Queen. Not in my domain”) territorial sniping and sense of entitlement in women’s tennis.
Historians will trace this dicey tradition back to the mother of all tennis divas – Suzanne Lenglen. In 1923, the first female superstar in all of sports put America’s rising light, Helen Wills, in her place in a celebrated exhibition – The Match of the Century – which drew a Russian Grand Duke, an Indian Rajah, the King of Sweden and 6,000 others to Cannes, France. Then Wills punished the aspiring Helen Jacobs. None other than Chris Evert, then one of tennis’ most highly hyped teens, had to confront a cadre of prospects – most notably Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaegar, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf.
But there has been no other debut into tennis like the Williamses’. Though they were virtually untested, we were informed they would be the next Nos. 1 and No. 2 and they would revolutionize the game.
Other players were hardly delighted with all the hubris. Lindsay Davenport fought long and hard to keep on top of the sisters. Jennifer Capriati insisted she was the only one battling the Williamses, and the ultimate of European divas, Martina Hingis, who arrived to prominence just before the Williamses, refused to cede her crown and fought them tooth and nail on court, and for world attention off court.
There was the famous Bump Heard ‘Round the World at the ’97 U.S. Open, when Irina Spirlea and Venus collided, prompting the Romanian to utter that immortal commentary: “She thinks she’s the f—ing Venus Williams!”
Of course, in the end, Venus and Serena did revolutionize tennis, becoming the ruling bodies of the game. Not surprisingly, the Wimbledon press bowed to the double divas with a string of devotional questions.
•”[Radwanska] basically feels a hopelessness when she’s playing your sister. Why do you think you’ve cut such a division between yourselves and the rest of women’s tennis? Do you feel you’re carrying women’s tennis, and why aren’t there people coming out to challenge you guys properly?”
•”[It] seems to us like there are only two players, at Wimbledon…Does it feel that way to you? Do you feel the rest of the field are getting closer or further away?”
So a big-stage win over Venus or Serena is both a prized treasure and a rite of passage for that still-to-be-discovered player who is to be the game’s next great diva. The Williamses have been trying to keep Maria Sharapova from firmly grabbing the queen diva’s cloak since ’04, when the screaming Russian grabbed Serena’s glory at Wimbledon. While Sharapova hasn’t had quite the on-court success that the sisters have had, tennis’ glamorous supermodel has passed them in off-court earnings, which the more demure Venus likely doesn’t care about, but Hollywood-loving Serena might. Heck, even Sharapova’s camp was none too thrilled last year when the daring brunette, Ana Ivanovic, came to world attention, and Serena certainly wasn’t pleased when Ivanovic’s attention-loving fellow Serbian, Jelena Jankovic, preened for the cameras at last year’s U.S. Open.
These days, one top-of-list prospect is the hard-hitting, quite fleet Victoria Azarenka who beat Serena for the big Miami title in April.
It’s not that the Belarussian is a starstruck, prancing ‘n preening wannabe, hungry for a Letterman appearance or more photo shoots (although fastlane pics of her did appear in this month’s issue of FHM). Rather, Azarenka has a package of elite-level skills that she combines with a ferocity and will to win that is unlike anything women’s tennis has seen since Sharapova, Hingis and, for that matter, the young Williamses.
So does Serena’s swift, convincing 72-minute 6-2, 6-3 dismissal today count as a major push-back against the game’s next great one, who’s anxious to dethrone a Williams or two.
Not really. While both sisters are aware that the new young pack that includes Azarenka, Dane Caroline Wozniacki, Slovak Dominica Cibulkova, Romanian Sorana Cirstea and Pole Aga Radwanska (whom Venus crushed on Monday) are a capable bunch, youth and beauty doesn’t necessarily impress the sisters as much as youth and capability does.
While Azarenka is a tigress, the 19-year-old isn’t as polished as Serena was at that age and Serena knows better than anyone that the most deserving divas are the ones who put up the big Ws, not just those who talk about them.
Richard Williams told IT that playing a rising young star doesn’t give Serena an extra edge. “Serena just hates to lose. It just bothers her to lose.”
On the one hand, Serena, too, dismissed any notion that she was protecting her turf against a pretender. “What gives me extra [motivation] is the fact that I want to do well. This is the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam, and I want to get to the next round. That’s pretty much how I think about it.”
But, yes, she admitted that her loss to Azarenka in the Miami final was definitely a motivating factor. Asked where her great tennis against the Belarusian came from, Serena replied: “I really wanted to do well today. I didn’t do well the last time we played. I was not feeling great…I really wanted to show up today.
She certainly did. So again – at least on this day – Ms. Serena remains firmly atop her throne, our reigning monarch, the dahlin’ diva of our game.
