By Bill Simons
Call it showtime. Prime time, bright lights, the Big Apple – feel the tingle!
There’s Oprah in the President’s Suite. Kim Kardashian is with her sister in the Players Lounge.
“Sis is it!” blared one headline. “Sis boom bam!” read another.
The tennis gift that keeps on giving – the “straight outta Compton,” over-the-top, always-a-twist Williams family legend – gave once again tonight.
Pure sizzle.
This wasn’t the lean kid Venus in 1994, a waif with beads in her braids, scared but bravely emerging on the scene. (Let the hoopla begin.)
It wasn’t teen Serena capturing her first Slam here in New York, some 16 years and 20 Slams ago. This wasn’t Venus colliding with a Romanian player her dad called a “big fat white turkey.” This wasn’t a California desert crowd hooting at Serena, or a livid Serena getting in the face of a diminutive US Open lineswoman – shouting she was going “to take this f—–g ball and shove it down your f—–g throat!”
The Williams haven’t shoved their story down our throats. There’s just no way that tennis, sports or even world culture could ignore the sisters’ revolutionary roar.
Has there ever been a more compelling or long-lasting sports story?
The narrative goes on and on, re-inventing itself with dynamic ease. Remember when there were accusations of paternal collusion? Papa Richard Williams – the inspired mastermind behind the Williams miraclel – was vilified. Remember the wretched line calls against Serena at the 2004 US Open that led to the implementation of Hawkeye? There were bows to queens and triumphs in Queens. There was Venus’ campaign for equal prize money, Serena’s romances and rumors, tons of ‘tude, shocking upsets and stunning comebacks. There was the murder of a sister, a fluke accident in a Munich bar that proved to be devastating, Serena’s near-death battle with an embolism, Venus holding high her college degree in accounting, and Serena selling blouses on TV.
Whew!
Just this year, after a 14-year boycott, Serena finally returned to Indian Wells, in a powerful moment of redemption and forgiveness.
But on court she has been unforgiving. Yes, there were scares. “Easy is hard” could be Serena’s motto. Time and again, Serena was Houdini. Whether she was on French or Spanish clay, facing an English darling on British grass, or battling rebel girl Bethanie Mattek-Sands on New York cement, Serena managed to survive, winning all three Slams this season.
And Venus survived, too. For at least the last five years she’s had to deal with a debilitating immune disorder, Sjogren’s Syndrome, yet now at the Open she was playing some of her best tennis in memory.
Yes, as a kid, Venus was Serena’s caretaker – giving her the winners trophy even though she beat her younger sibling in a junior tournament, providing lunch money when the hungry Serena had none. But as the late anthropologist Margaret Mead told us, “Sisters are probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.”
In their 27th meeting, the two power-meisters came out blasting, painting the lines, driving each other backwards and holding serve with considerable ease.
Some said that if Venus – who had more aces than anyone left in the woman’s tourney – could harness her power, she could prevail. Never mind that Serena had a 15-11 advantage in their rivalry and was No. 1, while Venus was No. 23. Forget that since the two last met at the US Open in 2008, Serena had won 12 Slams, while Venus hadn’t won any.
Still, Serena was understandably cautious. To her, she was facing the best player in the tournament.
So, before a presidential candidate – Mr. Trump – who was intensely booed, and over 23,700 fans who roared loud in glee, Serena battled to separate herself from her older sister in what some said was the most hyped tennis match since the 1973 Battle of the Sexes between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
But, as the late cartoonist Charles Schulz noted, “Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.”
No kidding.
In no way would Venus just be bowled over by Serena’s seemingly inevitable march to history. From the very first game, Venus was playing well. She was, claimed Serena, going through this tournament “very sneaky.” But very little was sneaky about Venus’s big serves and laser groundies, which brought her sister to her knees.
Novelist Pam Brown claimed sisters, “monopolize the bathroom, annoy, interfere, criticize. Indulge in monumental sulks, in huffs, in snide remarks. Borrow. Break.”
Serena did not sulk. At least she was calm and focused in the first set. She promptly broke in the fifth game of the opener, when she blasted a backhand, then offered a sneaky drop shot, and Venus flubbed a forehand.
Writer Linda Sunshine informs us that “more than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you’ve been bad and good,” and Venus knew Serena, who went on to capture the first set 6-2 in just 33 minutes, was good, very good. The crowd murmured. Would Serena simply sprint to a tidy, boring straight-set win?
But Serena is not boring – and in matches, she’s not so tidy. Plus Venus hasn’t lasted 21 years on tour and won seven Slams because she wilts under pressure. Yes, Venus probably agreed with one observer who claimed, “If sisters were free to express how they really felt, they would tell their parents: ‘Give me all the attention and all the toys and send Rebecca to live with Grandma.’”
Okay, some might even have the audacity to whisper that Venus, 35, is now the granny of the tour. But in the second set she seemed in her prime. Re-tooling her game, she tapped into her A-level and blasted daunting returns and backhands, while Serena shocked us: the best player in the history took her foot off the pedal. Looking like a league player in a leafy suburb, Serena wavered, as her service motion broke down and a 64 mph second serve found the middle of the net. In just 15 minutes her serve, her groundies, and her celebrated but sometimes illusive confidence wobbled. OMG: Venus rushed to a 6-1 second set win.
Now the greatest sister vs. sister tussle since Queen Elizabeth I prevailed with deathly force over her sibling, Mary, Queen of Scots came down to a single set.
But remember this: no athlete is better at crunch time than Serena. She quickly doubled down and lifted her game, unleashing her own power returns and backhands to break Venus early in the decisive set. When she faced a spot of trouble – a testy mid-set breakpoint – she blasted a 119 mph ace. With a twelfth and final ace, she prevailed in the monumental match 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.
Then, in a curious Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moment, the two went in an instant from fierce foes to loving siblings. Go figure. Their embrace at the net brought to mind a question novelist Alice Walker once posed: “Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister?”
Also reporting: Frances Aubrey, John Huston.
