The Good In Serena Being Gone

The 2011 Australian Open: The Good in Serena Being Gone

It's no big loss Serena Williams missing from this year's Australian Open. And the sentence should remain slightly grammatically incorrect for proper emphasis.

Both Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, are themselves unpredictable: Injuries, emotions, and offcourt diversions often wildly affect their appearance at tournaments—not to mention how these factors shape and affect their performance during tournaments (see the 2009 U.S. Open vis-a-vis Serena).

But there is more particularly categorically non-stroke intangibility, relative to the higher ranked sister: namely, angst and drama queen-ism. Serena Williams reigns supreme in showcasing these two qualities. That she is absent from the 2011 Australian Open means the significant diminishing of these idiosyncrasies. That diminution is a good thing. Serena Williams—unlike John McEnroe—is not an interesting enough personality or player to have these dual flaws—or dual mannerisms—overlooked. In Serena, these twin personal traits cannot help but bother us.

To illustrate further and compare, let's take a parallel but distinguished case. That of Jennifer Capriati. Jennifer, unlike Serena, had true angst. Her drama queen-ism was also real. One felt Capriati's pain. Despite pushy parentage, despite hype, Jennifer Capriati wanted to win because she grew to have a genuine passion for winning (simultaneous with the penchant for drama).

Often, one gets the feeling that Serena Williams wants to win simply to be exalted. Or because she feels she is supposed to win. Unlike Jennifer, Serena's angst has never grown true. Put another way, Jennifer Capriati's drama queen-ism became endemic reality; Serena's version of it is a tool. The absence at this year's Australian Open of Serena's double affectation to achieve her assumed ends seems a relief.

There are plenty of other minuses with regard to women's tennis currently: the appallingly loud grunting by intriguing ball strikers (many female tour players have more grunt than game); the need of a Chris Evert-type ace superstar who can automatically lift interest; and the depletion level or decrease in durability shown by many top players in recent times.

Yet despite the women's game's general problems, the two specific deficiencies in the tennis character of Serena Williams stick out. The 2011 Australian Open can do without them.