Opinion: Grace Under Pressure Is Why Serena Won’t Win Another Major Title

First of all, I have to delete from my mind the hilarious, visual image of Serena intimidating the esteemed journalist Richard Pagliaro. Not nice, Serena; Rich is your fan and once said you could win a major wearing a big straw hat and red high heels. But seriously, Scoop, great assessment of Serena and her past and future. Serena is indeed a complicated soul and has been a great champion.

Federer wins another tournament and it’s not worthy of it’s own post??? WTF? :-/

I don’t think it will take him 5 sets. He Beat Djoker in 4.

Steve,

The match that counted between Fed and Nadal in 2012 was the Aussie semis, not IW semis. Nadal won in four sets. This was Nadal’s first event back from Australia. Fed had player two prior events to IW. Give Nadal a chance to get his A-game going. Fed won’t beat him at RG when it matters again.

There are five events that matter this year. The others matter, but they’re pre-lims.

Scoop,

How many sets has Federer won against Nadal in the French Open? He’s won a total of four sets in four matches. What makes you think he can beat Rafa in Paris on clay?

^^ Well said Scoop. You should be a writer. 🙂

I thought I heard an announcer say Indian Wells was a relatively slow court. Dan, can you confirm this?

A slow court works to Isner’s advantage actually.

Scoop:
Hope you get to see Serena play in Miami. I admit, I’m a Serena fan. Was there in ’99 covering her when she won her first major at the US Open and I remember thinking this girl is a star and the only one who can stop her is herself. People always talk about her win over Hingis in the final and it appeared to me at one point Hingis was starting to read the serve a little bit better when she got Serena into the breaker. That breaker was one of the pivotal moments of her early career, IMO, because she’s playing the world No. 1 who had just taken out Venus and who was the smartest and mentally strongest player in the world at that time, IMO, but Serena stood up to her and took Hingis out – power and poise – and that’s when you knew she was going to be a historic champion. First major title, you knew she was special.
People forget, when she won the ’99 Open she was only 17, I thikn it was only her 7th career major and Serena took out Seles, Davenport, Hingis in succession to win the ’99 Open. They also forget, she had to fight back to beat Clijsters (third round) and Conchita Martinez (fourth round) just to get to Seles in that tournament.
When she’s fit, healthy and interested in competing she’s off the charts, IMO. If Serena is healthy this year (She already had the ankle injury in Australia) and if she plays at least a semi-regular schedule, I’ll be very surprised if she doesn’t win either a major or the Olympic Gold in singles which is the only real significant title she has not won (She’s got all four majors, Miami multiple times, gold in doubles, Fed Cup even won IW).
I agree with you on this:
“Williams is a deeply sensitive soul who cares about others and her own image. One will never forget seeing Serena feeling the joy and beaming excitement for Maria Sharapova after she lost to the Russian teen in straight sets in the Wimbledon final. I have never seen a defeated finalist express such pure pleasure and sincere happiness for her conquerer as Serena showed that afternoon.

But tennis can deform a person, as Zoltan Seles once said (in John Feinstein’s classic book “Hard Courts”), and this game can create a monster out of a person, it can bring out our best and it can also evoke our worst.”

WEll said. Absolutely agree – it can both elevate and deform even the best. I disagree on this:

“For Serena to win now, as her body and reflexes decline, she must depend more on her emotional and mental powers, superhuman ferocity and intensity. Those characteristics showed during the Stosur match but it was still not enough to propel her to victory.”

The reason I disagree is I think Serena potentially could have an Agassi-type post 30 resurgence if she wants it, if she trains and if she is healthy. Why? Because Agassi, who was taking long breaks virtually every other season earlier in his career, has always said in retrospect if he did not take those breaks he would have burned out by 27. Physically, mentally, emotionally, he had a lot more mileage left post-30 than someone like Courier, Chang or Pete because he hadn’t lived life on the tennis treadmill for 10 straight years. So his body was not as banged up (though obviously he had back issues later) and his desire was undiminished.
Similarly, Serena’s trips into Hollywood, fashion, commercialism (at one point I swear I saw her more on HSN than in tournaments) has given her long breaks and time away from the game to recover physically (remember she has had knee surgeries) and emotionally – like AA she’s said she does not love tennis, said it again in January, and her career has already outlasted contemporaries like Hingis, Henin, Jenny, Pierce, etc., and I think she’s physically fresher than people think because she hasn’t been beating up the body continuously for years and years.
Serena is smart enough to know that the best way she can continue to build her brand (fashion, acting, commercials, her bank account, etc.) is by continuing to be a tennis champion and she was just in the US Open final 6 months ago, she’s won more Australian Open titles than every other active woman combined, she has the best serve in the history of women’s tennis at a time when really there aren’t dominant servers on WTA, IMO, so why wouldn’t she believe she can still win majors? Don’t underestimate the value of a dollar to her either: she knows post-tennis it is much more difficult to pick up a $1 million check for 2 weeks of work. Clearly, she is someone committed to building a brand beyond tennis – being a businesswoman – and she knows that requires capital. Just as Agassi always said that playing later into his 30s gave him the visibility and platform to fund-raise for his school and charity.
Once asked her to name her favorite major and she said Wimbledon because of tradition and U.S. Open because “I’m American and because they pay you the most money…” IF you saw that MSG exo she was going pretty hard because the money motivates her and nothing wrong with that at all – it’s the same for many.
YEars ago, was at a press conference and someone asked her how people approach her on street. She said many casual fans who don’t follow tennis closely just assume she’s No. 1 and she said something like “I never correct them because I always feel I’m the best no matter what the rankings say…”
To me, that sums up her view of the game and why she’s relevant if she chooses to be. I never felt like JJ or Safina really felt like they were the best when they were No. 1. I feel Serena could be ranked 101 and would still truly believe she is the best. But she also knows when you’re unprepared to play you are more vulnerable to injury, to upset, to off days. She has been unprepared to play at times, IMO, but if she can dedicate herself I believe she’ll win more majors. Also, Lisa Raymond, a tremendously underrated doubles player, is winning majors at 39 in doubs. IF Venus and Serena ever decided to focus a bit more on doubles they would win multiple doubles majors well into their late 30s, IMO.

There’s definitely an anti-Fed bias here. Had Djoker won there would have been a whole post wrapped around it and projections on his future.

Steve,

I’d agree with you. I won’t speak for Scoop, but I am a little anti-Fed, even though, of the Big 4, he is the player I prefer watching. I’ve gotten down on Fed a bit over the last few years as he seems to show more hubris at times.

His win at IW was a surprise, especially as he started out, losing sets to Raonic and Bellucci. Maybe b/c his wins over Nadal and Isner were relatively easy, it discounted from his win. If he wins Miami, I’ll be back on the Fed kool aid.

Nice post, Rich. It was very insightful. Your rationale behind Agassi’s long career makes sense. He got burned out in the middle, then made a comeback. The same thing could happen to Serena too.

However, I don’t care much for Serena because I believe it is fundamentally more important to behave better and be nice to a fellow human being than winning. In fact,the rich and successful people have equal if not higher responsibility to hold themselves accountable for their actions.

True champion is someone who displays courage without resorting to unfair tactic, bending rules, interfering with referee, swearing etc. Great sportsmen, I think, have this realization even while they are in the heat of a battle.

Take for instance, the 2008 & 2009 Wimbledon finals. Many rate them as one of the best matches of all time. Players displayed remarkable talent, physical and mental fitness. To me the best part was these matches were contested clean and fair. There were no arguments, no drama, but yet they were classic thrillers!

Losers are those who lose control of themselves and hurt others mentally or physically. Serena needs to grow up!

Like I said before,

Venus needs advice on what to wear
Serena needs reminders not to swear! 🙂

Gans:
Good response. I’m not trying to persuade you – or anyone – to root for Serena. People are fans of players for all different reasons.

Certainly, I’m not defending Serena’s verbal assault on the lineswoman during the US Open semi loss to Clijsters. I was there for that match. It was an absolutely awful call, IMO, however Serena’s response was completely out of line, she was 100 percent wrong to react like that and in no way am I justifying or condoning what she did. She was wrong.

That said, When you write: “True champion is someone who displays courage without resorting to unfair tactic, bending rules, interfering with referee, swearing etc. Great sportsmen, I think, have this realization even while they are in the heat of a battle….”

Let me say this about Serena, unlike other top players who stall, use bathroom breaks, coaching time outs and arguments as gamesmanship to disrupt the opponent, she does not. She does not stall, she does not use the bathroom break, she almost never uses coaching time outs either. The only time I ever recall seeing her even call for a coach was years ago in Miami vs. Sharapova and in that case her father came out and I don’t even know if she called him out. So the suggestion she somehow bends the rules is just not true, IMO. With the exception of her obviously over the top and offensive outburst at the Open, she very rarely even argues calls, she seldom uses Hawk-Eye, she does not stall, she does not go to the towel, she does not use fake injury timeouts (she played on a very bad ankle in Australia). She gets the ball and plays ball. I respect that particularly now when there’s too many shenanigans going on between points.

The other point is how come people are so quick to bring up her outburst at the Open (again she’s 100 percent wrong in the case) but are so quick to forget the times she’s been on the wrong end of horrible calls? I covered the Capriati match vs. Serena at US Open when Mariana Alves over-ruled in one of the worst over-rules I’ve seen. Steve Flink called it “The worst officiating I’ve seen in 40 years…” She was screwed 3 times on bad calls then but no one seems to remember or care much about that yet that match was the reason the USTA adopted Hawk-Eye at the US Open and they apologized to her as soon as she stepped off the court so clearly they knew it was wrong. Similarly, the match vs. Henin at French Open when Justine clearly held up her hand, 15,000 people saw it lines people saw it, again no one corrected it. How about the time the chair umpire at Wimbledon completely blew the score in Venus’ tiebreak vs. Karolina Sprem. I’ve covered tennis 20+ years and have never, ever seen a chair umpire on Center Court Wimbledon give a player an extra point in a tie break. Are you telling me no one on the court could have stepped up, spoken up, intervened and told the chair umpire he blew the score?

So when you talk about sportsmanship remember fair play is a two way street. I don’t argue that she was right, I’m not saying the ends justify the means, I’m simply saying if I had been screwed as she has in major matches on stadium courts in front of thousands of people it is human nature to be edgy or even slightly paranoid about officiating. She’s played more than 600 singles matches in her career and the Clijsters blowup and her outburst in the Open final last year seem to be the ones that get a lot of attention. But fair play is a two way street so if we want to be fair about her behavior then I would suggest we review some of the other 608 matches she’s played and check her behavior there but people are sometimes reluctant to apply perspective to things because it doesn’t always support their points.
Lastly, when Gonzalez, Connors, Nastase, McEnroe even the young Agassi (once default for cursing on court himself) had outbursts on court people called them “Colorful”, “charismatic”, “bold”, “brash”, “in-your-face”, “gamers”, “Ballsy”, and don’t get me wrong I loved all of those players – McEnroe is one of my all time favorites – yet Serena’s antics, compared to their behavior is barely a blip on the behavioral Richter scale but she’s called “A monster”, “a beast”, “out of control” “unsportsmanlike”.
Huh? Is this the kind of double standard tennis applies? Go back and watch the tape of the Clijsters match, she apologizes to Clijsters right after the matc and shakes her hand. Go back to the 2011 US Open final and see how she greets Stosur after that loss.
If she stays healthy she will win more majors – in singles and doubles, IMO – and hopefully when she retires people will judge her legacy on her entire body of work and not just the ugly outbursts, which were indeed ugly and wrong, but it’s wrong to cling to 2 matches out of 600 and portray a highly competitive character as a caricature too – not saying you are doing that but some have.