In 1995, at the Quebec Bell Challenge, a 14-year-old black girl stood on the court.
Relying on the wild card given by the event side, she was able to get the opportunity to participate in the competition at such a young age. The final result was also unexpected – she was out early in the first round of qualifying.
The first time she stepped on the professional stage, one could see the uneasiness and nervousness on her face. No one on the scene would have imagined that this would be the starting point of a brilliant story.
This little girl with dirty braids and green demeanor is named Serena Williams.
27 years later, her name is like legend - on September 3, 2022, Serena played the last game of her career in the third round of the US Open. Serena fought hard for three hours, and even though he saved the final point of the match five times in the last set, he still lost 1-2 to Tom Janovic, ending his career.
Richard Williams and two daughters.
The lure of $40,000
Serena was not born into a wealthy family, and the community in which the family lived, like many black communities, was surrounded by violence, drugs, gang fights and other chaos.
But Serena is extremely lucky, in such an environment that can easily sink to the end, she has an extremely idealistic father - relying on the three-legged cat kung fu that she asks for drinks and teachings, and her father himself became a coach, determined to train his daughter to become a tennis Grand Slam champion.
Later, in an interview, Father Richard Williams said his idea was simple: to see the French Open women's singles champion on TV receive $40,000 in prize money.
In the movie King Richard, Will Smith plays David's father.
The temptation of a $40,000 prize became the initial starting point of the Williams sisters' legend, but it turned out that the old father Richard's gamble was right.
From picking up a racket at the age of 4 and training on a humble public court, to being professionally cultivated by the famous teacher Rick March, to entering the professional tennis arena at the age of a teenager... The talent and power displayed by Serena broke through everyone's expectations.
In 1996, world Number 304 Serena Williams was in a tournament in Chicago, where Lienk's then-World No. 7 Mary Pierce and World No. 4 Ceres cut down the TOP10 players for the first time in their careers, and became the lowest ranking in the open era to beat two TOP10 players in the same tournament.
At that time, Serena was only 15 years old.
With such a prologue, what kind of brilliance can this young girl's career play? Many people are predicting, but looking back more than twenty years later, too many people's imagination is too conservative.
In the 1999 US Open, the 18-year-old Serena Williams tasted the taste of a Grand Slam champion for the first time, and still defeated Christers, Martinez, Cyres, Singis and other Grand Slam champions along the way, thus announcing the birth of a new king.
So far in his career, Serena has left behind an innumerable number of honors and historical records - 23 singles Grand Slams, the first in the history of the Open Era; The first singles and doubles gold slam in history; Two annual Grand Slams of non-natural years...
If only one person in the women's tennis world in the past thirty years can be called "legendary", then only Serena has this qualification.
Death
What is Serena's status in the women's tennis world? Not only for the audience, but even for many active players, she is the closest to the existence of the "queen".
Today's woman is the world's first Swatik, a full 20 years younger than Serena Williams. When Serena was mentioned before the US Open, her statement was: "When I saw her, it didn't feel real at all, I was watching her (the game) since I was a child, and now when I see her, I still feel like a child." ”
But Serena's transformation from a young rising star to the queen of tennis is not as easy as it seems.
When Serena is mentioned, many people will lament the power of her hitting and serving, and lament the domineering spirit of her on the court, but like all other players, Serena also has only a flesh and blood body.
Since her debut as a young woman, she has been frequently affected by injuries, quiting important events or staying away from the training ground due to injuries many times, but she has finally survived again and again.
As early as 2003, the 22-year-old Xiaowei underwent surgery on his left knee, and this injury was also intermittent after that, and from time to time he came out to make trouble.
After losing the 2016 US Open semifinals, Moratogru, Serena's coach at the time, said: "She (Serena) has been playing tennis for too long, and most of the knee cartilage tissue has been worn out, leaving a little left, so the bones will directly rub against each other." ”
And the old injuries on this "female King Kong" are far more than this, from elbows to back, from legs to feet, almost every part of Serena's body has been tortured by injuries.
Only every time, injuries could pause her, but they never knocked her down.
"I've had lows several times, but every time I've been able to get up and dust off my body." This is the pride declaration released in 2012 after Serena Williams won the fourth US Open. Now, another decade later, she is still standing on the field, which is admirable enough in itself.
What Xiao Wei has encountered is not only injuries, but also the experience of crossing the ghost gate.
In 2011, Serena encountered a thrill of pulmonary embolism, and in 2017, during the birth of a daughter, Death once again passed by her.
At the time of childbirth, Serena had to undergo a caesarean section because of a sudden drop in the newborn's heart rate, and later there were symptoms of pulmonary embolism, and at the strong request of Serena herself, the doctor performed a pulmonary embolism related examination for her, and the result was indeed so.
At the same time, Xiao Wei had a severe cough, a cracked wound, internal bleeding and other symptoms, and received a series of complications including implanted vascular filters, which saved his life from the ghost door before closing.
This experience made Xiao Wei also afraid - if he had not insisted on a doctor's examination at that time, the consequences would have been unimaginable. On the pitch, Serena has always been confident to the point of almost paranoia, and in the hospital bed, her stubbornness has even become a judgment that determines life and death.
Become a legend and leave a legend
In an interview, Serena williams once said that tigers are one of their favorite animals because they are not only beautiful and majestic, but also tenacious and tenacious.
And Serena himself is like a tiger on the field.
After crossing the threshold of 30 years old, Serena Williams won 10 Grand Slam titles, 1 Olympic gold medal and 9 top-level championships.
If the brilliance of youth can be attributed in part to extraordinary talent, then the continuous output after becoming a veteran is enough to prove Serena's tenacity and persistence.
After giving birth in 2017, in addition to the physical torture, Serena's psychology also fell into a collapse, and her postpartum depression made her suffer from depression and tears for a long time.
But just as she had gotten back on her feet countless times, this time the challenge had failed her.
After his comeback, although he failed to complete his dream of a 24th Grand Slam, Serena still reached the final four of the Grand Slam 6 times, including 4 finals, which is a miracle for a professional player who is nearly forty years old.
But the traces of time are also clearly recognizable - before saying goodbye to the US Open this year, Serena williams suffered three Grand Slam rounds in her career, one in 2012, and the other two in Wimbledon in 2021 and 2022, which was also the last two Grand Slam matches played by Serena williams before this year's US Open.
For the dream of 24 crowns, Serena has also learned to let go calmly and gradually shift her focus to family, as she herself said: "If I have to choose between tennis and family, I will choose the latter." 」 ”
"I have a beautiful daughter at home and I still want to be champions and be successful, but that's no longer a reason for me to wake up every day, there's a lot more to teach my daughter in this sport than victory."
In the much more competitive Open era, chasing margaret Court is only one step away from the record of 24 Grand Slam titles set by Margaret Court in the non-Open era, which has made Serena Serena's figure great enough. Such a defect will not damage the glory of this legend in the slightest.
"I had fantasized that I could win every race and take all the trophies in my arms, which was obviously impossible." After the comeback of the birth daughter, Xiao Wei's desire to win has become a little more indifferent and humble.
"No one wants their life to go through ups and downs, but not everything is as good as you want, you can't control it."
23 Grand Slams, 73 singles titles, 319 weeks world number one, the oldest world number one in history... The peak that Serena Williams has climbed is enough for generations of new generations of tennis players to look up.
But what remains in the memory of tennis audiences is not only the moment when Serena held the cup, but also her tenacity to overcome difficulties and go through lows again and again.
"She is one of the greatest athletes in the history of any sport, both men and women." This is the evaluation sent to Serena by tennis star McEnroe. The junior Raducannu said: "Never has a player dominated women's games like her. ”
From walking on the professional stage with nervousness 27 years ago, to now ending in the cheers of tennis players around the world, Serena Williams has conquered not only the entire women's tennis world, but also her own life.
Source: The Paper