Serena Williams: The Game and the Gloom

Serena Williams is a great player, but one with very little appeal.

Where is the allure and pleasure in watching a player like Williams, who goes about winning in her now developed and refined wooden fashion? It's like watching a robot do the moonwalk.

At the 2011 US Open tennis tournament that is currently ongoing, Williams has characteristically, as if she had a hammer and a sickle instead of a racket, bludgeoned her way into the quarterfinals.

Here's how Williams typically enters the court for a match: “Crip” walking, bent, skulking, frowning and sullen. Overall, she tries to project a Frankensteinian presence. She is about ponderous, plodding and punishing intimidation. This actually works for her, but it's not very exciting or engaging for the tennis buff.

Watching Williams play tennis is all gloomy and dark.

There's no joy to her game. It's like she's programmed to stalk, dare and eventually crush bewildered opponents and then be relatively unhappy about it. Further, if that doesn't work, trash talk and exacerbate the “Crip” walk some more.

This seems to be Williams' tennis breeding. But it's not a pretty tennis picture.

Says Williams: "Yeah, I walk out there, do the Crip walk and try to intimidate them. No, I don't try. I just am. I am who I am. I don't know whether that's intimidating or not. I am just me."

Wake-up memo to Williams: You are intimidating, especially for the erratic and lesser-quality crew now compromising the WTA Women's circuit. There, Serena, now you know.

To wit, Williams' playing style has always been to take immediate control of a point. That is, boom a serve and then smash a forehand winner from the adversary's weak return. After this is done, stare down the stunned adversary, hoping to scare the opponent into submission before the match is fully played.

But Williams' on-court browbeating or arrogance—whatever you want to call it—seems not quite central to the issue, for her or for those who love the sport of tennis.

Williams would do good to look in the mirror. Being “just me” doesn't always work in life. A little honest self-analysis can do one good.

And after this, it may be right to invest in change.

Chris Evert was stoic during a match, but her love of the game was always apparent. Evert had a magnetic, true personality that earned her a huge and everlasting following.

One gets the feeling that Williams either doesn't know or won't reveal her true self. This costs her fans. Notice in her interviews, William will often say “I don't know” in answering a question, and she will kind of equivocate. Is it on purpose?

It's as if Williams is fearful that her true inner persona will be frowned upon by the public.

Yes, Williams will have 14 grand slam titles and 40 career singles titles if she wins the current US Open. Only the tennis greats have done such things.

However, as quoted from Tennis.com (September 6): “...but when you consider that [Serena] Williams has been forced to miss 11 Grand Slam events since her first main-draw appearance at the 1998 Australian Open due to various knee, ankle, foot, shoulder and stomach ailments, it merits special attention. Several years and numerous accusations of being distracted from and disinterested in tennis have past yet its come full circle all over again....”

The important part of the above quote is the phrase “being distracted and disinterested.” Those criticisms have really not gone away. In my opinion, much of Williams missing those 11 Grand Slam events had to do with “gloominess” and “I don't know” self-consciousness. “Distractedness,” if you will.

The average tennis fan cannot get excited about Williams because they can't really tell if she's genuine and gratified by what she does.

Final memo to Serena: Face up. Put more zest in your game and more zeal in your attitude. Perhaps as a consequence, the gloom and the doubt will disappear.