Little remains of that Venus Williams that we knew in other times, when she was a tennis player as stylized as she was forceful.
If anything remains, it will be the spirit.
And it is that spirit that leads her to proclaim:
If anyone can continue playing at 50, it's me.
Now he is 43.
And for this reason, Venus Williams, protesting, raises her finger and asks for an invitation to meet again with the Wimbledon grass, where she has won five times (fifteen years have passed since her last success, in 2008), a tournament that she has prepared almost exclusively, since in this 2023 he has only played three competitions, two of them on grass (Hertogenbosch and Birmingham).
And yes, the people of the All England Lawn Tennis Club invite Venus Williams, today the 558th on the WTA circuit. She even grants him a slot in the Center Court schedule.
(After all, he has 24 Wimbledon appearances, more than anyone ever, and 90 wins and 18 losses on that stage.)
But now he can't.
Width 1h32m, ante in series Elina Svitolina (6-4 y 6-3).
Although, in reality, it is disassembled before. It happens quarter of an hour into the game: a blow from Svitolina catches her off-foot, Venus Williams stumbles on the grass and, big she, scatters and shouts.
She laments about her right knee, the one that wears a spectacular white bandage, and she goes to the bench assisted by the doctor, who reviews the case and talks with Williams.
A couple of minutes go by like this, until the American nods and finally returns to the track, and now she moves even slower, more indecisive, more imprecise in serving – practically her only weapon – and limited in the longer rallies.
His game is bewildering.
A masterful shot, with parallels and a perfect resolution in the net, is followed by a blushing exercise: Venus Williams sends a simple and tame ball two meters from the line.
And there is no way: Venus Williams does not enter the match, who opts for Svitolina, the Ukrainian who denies greetings to the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, also denies it to any Russian tennis player, and who finds here a highway to the second round. It is enough for Svitolina to move Venus Williams, who does not start in the lateral displacements and barely manages to bend the knee and does not duck when the ball bounces low.
The drift is painful, a torment for the senses of all of us who remember the Venus Williams of other times, when she was a majestic and efficient tennis player, a legend comparable to Hingis, Seles or Henin, rulers of a specific time, just one step away. behind the superlatives Court, Graf, Navratilova, Evert or Serena Williams, the younger sister of Venus.
Gone are those episodes that were narrated last year in King Richard, the Oscar-winning biopic that described the origins of the Williams family, with Will Smith playing the father of the saga: what happened to that Venus that had fascinated John McEnroe and Pete Sampras and their trainer, Paul Cohen?
The spirit remains.
And is that enough?
Wimbledon applauded him yesterday.
