Opinion | Serena Williams returns to her Wimbledon office. She’ll let us know when she’s done

WIMBLEDON, England—Enter stage centre.

Where Serena Williams has always belonged. From the 16-year-old with rattling beaded cornrows who won her first Wimbledon title — mixed doubles — in 1998, to the 34-year-old who won her 22nd Grand Slam singles title and seventh Wimbledon women’s championship in 2016.

In the spotlight, in the revered glow of goddess-ness, in the panoply of legend.

And surely — unless organizers have licorice curls for brains — restored to the atmospheric aura of Centre Court at SW19, which is celebrating its own centenary, when Williams on Tuesday leans into her first-round match at the venerable All England Lawn Tennis Club.

It was here, exactly a year ago, that Williams was last seen playing a singles match, in pain and in tears, forced to quit her first-round encounter against Aliaksandra Sasnovich: limping off the court after stumbling on the grass, tearing — “ripped” is the word she uses — her right hamstring.

But for a two-match glimpse with doubles partner Ons Jabeur in Eastbourne last week — they had to retire from that tournament when Jabeur hurt her ankle, a prudent decision for the world No. 2 heading into Wimbledon — the tennis GOAT has played no tennis for 12 months and little for the past three years, what with a global pandemic and injuries and being a mom to four-year-old Alexis Olympia and co-producing an Oscar-nominated movie and diving ever deeper into her expanding business ventures.

Three months shy of her 41st birthday, a second act is looming for Williams; she’s already standing in the wings.

Many observers had doubted — and it was reasonable conjecture — whether she would or even could return to the sport. Why even subject herself to the physical grind, the demands on her oft-ailing body: from tennis, from complicated childbirth, from just plain living into her fifth decade. Especially if the old(er) Serena can’t hold a candle to the young(er) Serena in the estimation of most people, including her legion of admirers.

But it’s the stage she can’t resist, the bows that still entice. And, of course, her increasingly quixotic quest for a record-tying 24th Slam title.

“I didn’t retire,” Williams stated categorically in her pre-tournament press conference on the weekend, back on the dais in front of reporters, several of whom have chronicled her entire career encompassing now 21 Wimbledon tournaments and a trove of Wimbledon hardware: the seven singles championships, half a dozen women’s doubles trophies, a pair of Olympic gold medals from the London Games in 2012.

“I just needed to heal physically, mentally. And yeah, I had no plans, to be honest. I just didn’t know when I would come back. I didn’t know how I would come back.”

Yet she made this decision, to be here, before the French Open some five weeks ago. Nothing last-minute about it, and provided with a wild-card entry even as her ranking has drifted outside the top 1,000.

Of course, Williams has treaded the comeback path before. And given how her long career has been crafted — her father (“King Richard” in the movie that copped an Oscar for Will Smith) limiting his daughter’s tournaments in the earlier phase, with selective WTA Tour stops ever since — she arguably isn’t worn out competitively, despite the physical toll.

“I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t go through and get through what I got through. I love who I am — I wouldn’t trade it for anything — but there’s oftentimes that I think subconsciously I’d take breaks. I never played as much as the next player throughout my whole career. I think that was all subconscious, me taking care of myself and knowing how to take care of myself.

“A lot of people have to learn that. I think that was something that my parents built into me. Like, it was already programmed in. It was just something that I always naturally did.”

She’s also at a major without Patrick Mouratoglou for the first time in a decade, after splitting with the high-profile coach. The Frenchman’s thrown in his lot with former world No. 1 Simona Halep, while Williams has aligned with Eric Hechtman, who also coaches sister Venus Williams.

But the fact remains that the star of women’s tennis right now, Iga Swiatek, was born three years after Williams made her Wimbledon entrance, and the field is studded with young gems who are frankly in awe of her, if supremely motivated to take down a paragon.

Swiatek, the 21-year-old Pole on a torrid 35-match winning streak, was just coming off the practice court on Friday when Williams arrived. “I was pretty overwhelmed,” she admitted. “I didn’t know how to react perfectly. I wanted to meet her.” But she was too shy to introduce herself. “I saw that she had so many people around her. I don’t know her team. It was pretty weird.”

Then there’s American teen Coco Gauff, French Open finalist and tipped to claim her first Slam title here, with Swiatek not a grass-court specialist. Gauff is widely viewed as Serena’s successor, in tennis and as an emerging icon for her generation, a youthful Black woman who isn’t afraid to state her opinions. Unlike Williams, who declined to answer a question about the U.S. Supreme Court last week catastrophically undoing Roe v. Wade, rolling back abortion rights, 18-year-old Gauff waded right in: “Obviously I feel bad for future women and women now, but I also feel bad for those who protested for this, I don’t even know how many years ago … and are alive to see that decision be reversed. I feel like we’re almost going backwards.”

Gauff added: “I still want to encourage people to use their voice and not feel too discouraged about this because we can definitely make a change, and hopefully change will happen.”

Tennis has never been known for activism, although biracial Naomi Osaka did make a symbolic statement after the killing of George Floyd, wearing face masks during the COVID outbreak that bore the names of Black victims of police violence.

Williams, raised in hardscrabble Compton, has experienced that racism first-hand in what had been such a lily-white sport and has spoken out about mistreatment of Blacks, about violence, her own half-sister a murder victim.

Meanwhile, she is transitioning, expanding her horizons because the end of competitive tennis can’t be far off. In particular, she’s accentuated her business interests via her tech investment firm, Serena Ventures, which recently launched a $111-million (U.S.) early-stage venture capital fund, with a particular focus on diversity.

“It’s been totally different, honestly. A part of me feels like that is a little bit more of my life now than tournaments. When you have a venture company, you do have to go all-in. It definitely takes literally all my extra time, and it’s fun.” Laughing, she continued: “I’m currently out of the office for the next few weeks, so if you email me, you’ll get the ‘out of office’ reply.”

For however long her 21st Wimbledon lasts, this will be her office. It begins with an opening-round match against Wimbledon debutante Harmony Tan from France.

Asked by a reporter what a good outcome here would be, Williams practically rolled her eyes. Winning, stupid.

“You know the answer to that. C’mon now.”

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

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