Serena and Venus Williams have combined for twelve Grand Slam titles. Venus won five, three Wimbledon titles (’00, ’01 and ’05) and two U.S. Open titles (’00 and ’01). Serena has won seven, two Australian Open titles (’03 and ’05), one French Open title (’02), two Wimbledon titles (’02 and ’03) and two U.S. Open titles (’99 and ’02).
Still, the players are two of the most criticized in the sport of tennis. There are reasons for this they don’t play enough, they don’t take tennis seriously, they’re too interested in acting and fashion and off the court activities.
That’s true. Their focus has not always been on the court, and their game has been affected adversely. Neither of them has won a Grand Slam title since 2005. Serena has gotten out of shape, and has barely played. Venus has been dealing with a nagging wrist injury — one that is keeping her out of this year’s Australian Open. But the Williams sisters were criticized for their work ethic while they were still winning. In fact, the Williams sisters have been criticized by fans and analysts every single year of their careers.
At the start, it was due to their arrogance; Richard Williams dared to not only teach his daughters the game of tennis without going about it the traditional way, but dared to tell them that they were good, as well. Williams said his daughters would be numbers 1 and 2 in the world, a statement later echoed by Venus. When they were defeated, they asserted that it was because of their own mistakes, not because of the skill of their opponents. And because of those sentiments, writers seemed to delight in their defeats.
When they started winning, criticism of arrogance was forced to cease. When they started dominating, playing each other in four out of five straight Grand Slam finals, people were forced to come up with new criticism. The matches they played against each other were boring. Amelie Mauresmo, who has won one and a half Grand Slam titles (the half in last year’s Australian Open, which she won when Justine Henin-Hardenne retired from the match) had this to say:
“[An all-Williams final is] a little bit sad for women?s tennis … I think people are going to get bored about it. I?m not counting how many people have told me they don?t want a Williams final.”
Not only that, but the matches had to be fixed, as well.
And so, a National Enquirer report, unsubstantiated rumors and an injury by Venus became evidence that matches were being fixed. When match-fixing rumors died down, complaints centered on the sisters’ style of play. Gabriella Sabatini, who won one Grand Slam in her career (eleven fewer than the sisters’ combined):
Finally, when the sisters’ run of domination ended, criticism centered on their lack of desire. They weren’t winning anymore, and they no longer cared about tennis. They were out of shape, lazy, disrespecting the game. After all, it wasn’t like other players’ skills eventually eroded. But wait — Pete Sampras went more than two years between winning Wimbledon in 2000 and the U.S. Open in 2002 at the end of his career. Steffi Graf went three injury plagued years between titles. Lindsay Davenport last won a Grand Slam in 2000. Martina Hingis, whose comeback has served as an inspiration to the tennis world, last won in 1999. She didn’t retire until 2003. Still, the reason the Williams sisters don’t dominate anymore is because they are lazy, and never cared about the game, and are too obsessed about fashion.
“It’s harsh reality TV to watch Serena and Venus now … They had everything to dominate. They just didn’t take care of it. They created opportunities for themselves away from tennis — and decided to pursue them.”
They don’t know how to play the game. They never understood; they got taught by their father and somehow lucked their way into twelve Grand Slam titles. They somehow lucked their way into being ranked numbers one and two in the world. They somehow lucked their way into backing up every seemingly arrogant statement they made at the start of their careers; they somehow lucked their way into dominating tennis for three straight years, playing each other in Grand Slam finals five times.
They fixed their matches, deserved to get booed. They wore beads on the court, and designed their own clothes. They were in TV shows and movies, and designing houses and doing everything backwards. How dare they have other interests than tennis?
Twelve Grand Slam titles will never be enough for Venus and Serena. No matter what they do, nothing will ever be enough. Because the elements in tennis pick and prod at every single thing they do, finding fault with every single aspect of their careers and lives. And it won’t end until they finally leave a sport where they never were and never will be appreciated, a sport that didn’t want them there and didn’t want them dominating.
