Nothing to prove
Blimey. That sounds official. Today’s instructions from She Who Must Be Obeyed, the boss and governor of all our destinies here at wimbledon.com, have taken a completely different turn. “The case for Serena Williams” was the order. Is Serena up before the beak? Has she done something wrong? What is this all about?
Still, if that is what S.W.M.B.O. wants, then that is what she shall get.
So, m’lud, Ms. Serena Williams, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, stands before you, accused of being a potential champion at Wimbledon 2018. The Championships, held annually upon the lawns of the All England Club, Wimbledon, in the London borough of Merton, is the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament and has been won by the defendant seven times since 2002.
The defendant recently returned from maternity leave and her participation in The Championships this year is her first appearance at The Club since 2016. Consequently, the defendant’s ranking has dropped from No.1 in the world to No.181. She is, however, seeded No.25.
To date, she has dropped one set in five rounds to reach the semi-finals and will now play Julia Goerges, of Regensburg, a town in the south east of Germany at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers.
M’lud, my client has made it clear that she has no need to present her credentials during this Fortnight. She has already amassed 23 Grand Slam titles, more than all but one person in the history of the sport. She has only returned to the Grand Slam circuit in the past three months – Roland-Garros was her first foray into competition at this level since the birth of her daughter – and, therefore, could not reasonably be expected to have any expectations on her return to The Club. Indeed, she has said as much.
“I’m OK; I feel good,” my client said following her win over Ms Camila Giorgi, of Calenzano, Italy, on Tuesday. “I feel like I did better today – I had to – but this is only my fourth tournament back so I don’t feel pressure, I don’t feel I have to win this, I have to lose this; I’m just here just to be here and to prove that I’m back. I feel like I’m back – I still have a long way to go to be where I was.”
It is fair to say, m’lud, that throughout the course of her long and illustrious career, my client has had few challengers to her supremacy. When fully fit and unimpeded by trial or tribulation, my client has proved herself to be the pre-eminent player of several generations.
Thanks to her longevity, she has played though three distinct eras of the ladies’ game, beginning with the Stefanie Graf-Monica Seles days, moving on to the Martina Hingis-Lindsay Davenport-Justine Henin-Kim Clijsters era and on to current times.
Indeed, when at the peak of her powers, the greatest threat to my client’s chances of winning major titles has been herself. She is, after all, human and as a result is susceptible to the occasional bout of nerves. During these rare moments of frailty, she is wont to find her feet sticking to the court surface and her serving arm turning to lead. However, at this moment in time, as explained on Tuesday, my client feels immune from such maladies.
However, the serial champion standing before you now knows her place. Her lowly ranking is merely a mathematical anomaly based on her lack of participation in events of the ladies’ tour. It is not a true reflection of her ability – a fact that her every opponent acknowledges and she herself admits. It can only be a matter of time (and not a very long time) before her ranking catches up with her natural place in the world order.
Just this past nine days, she has improved her placing and after five successive wins, she is now positioned at No.51 in the world. It is an improvement but not one that satisfies her.
“Well, it's better than 181 or whatever I am,” my client has said. “Got to keep trekking on, though. Serena Williams, 51. Meh. It doesn't have that same ring to it. The '1' part does, but not the '5'. Keep going.”
There will be those, though, who believe that this is the best time to attack my client. With so few matches behind her, her defences must be weak. She must be vulnerable. M’lud, my client knows how to deal with this approach. As the leading player, every opponent she faces has absolutely nothing to lose and so is free to play with abandon. But that only makes my client stronger, as she pointed out earlier in The Championships.
“That's what makes me great,” she has explained. “I always play everyone at their greatest, so I have to be greater.”
So, in conclusion, m’lud, my client has been winning Grand Slam titles for the past 19 years and, specifically, Wimbledon titles for 16 years. Over the course of the first nine days of The Championships, every aspect of her game has improved incrementally. And of the four ladies left in the draw, my client is the only one who knows what it takes to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish.
To use the vernacular: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” M’lud, my client is clearly a champion in waiting.
I rest my case.
