Does Serena Williams Need Tennis As Much As Tennis Needs Serena?

Now that the tennis world has digested the news of Serena Williams’ pulmonary embolism and we hear that she hopes to be back by the summer, it’s worth taking a look at how, exactly, all this news was digested. Serena’s one of the best players the sport has ever seen, but you’d never know it from hearing about her in the media. Is it because she’s black?

Because she’s stronger than most women? Or maybe it’s the worst of all athlete sins—she just doesn’t seem to care enough.

Whatever the case, Serena’s one of the more polarizing players women’s tennis has ever seen, and when you look at the way she’s covered among the tennis media, you won’t find much of the reverence you’d expect for a woman that’s won 13 Grand Slams, and when she’s at her best, might be the most overpowering player in the history of her sport.

On this topic, Deadspin’s Emma Carmichael has a nice look at the twisted relationship between Serena and her sport. Both the history of criticism, the skepticism over her current injury, and the implications all this might have for the future. Here’s an excerpt:

... people in media have attempted engage Williams over the years — sometimes with thoughtful commentary, but mostly with what amounts to public taunting. It is said that she’s too focused on fashion. That her clothes are distracting. That she grunts too loudly in matches. That her ass is too big. That she should really play in more meaningless matches for cash and publicity. That she’s not properly dedicated to the cause of American tennis or of tennis in general, as if 13 Grand Slam titles weren’t commitment enough. That her injuries “need explanation,” as if seven months in a cast weren’t explanation enough. That she cares too much about fame, as if the press weren’t the machine that made her fame possible in the first place.

[...] So it goes with Serena, whose relationship with the tennis world will always be something like a middle-school courtship. Tennis perpetually craves a heart-laced note stuffed in a locker to prove that Serena has a real “crush” on it.

It’s an interesting look at a dynamic that’s more fascinating than most of us have ever realized. When most sports encounter a once-in-a-lifetime talent, regardless of how prickly that player’s demeanor, there’s a nostalgia that takes hold over the years. Look at the way the basketball media has embraced Kobe lately. Or even men’s tennis, with Roger Federer.

And in Serena, women’s tennis has that generational talent. A potential icon, who, for most of her career, has been bet with more frustration than adulation. So... Is that her fault, or her sport’s?