I had grand ideas for this post. To get to the essence of the argument, which is Serena and Venus could have been even greater, statistically if Richard Williams had been even more obstinate about holding them out of full-time professional schedules, I had to pour over the last four decades of women's results. The statistics and history threatened to overwhelm. So here is a very shoddy first draft, one which I won't revisit or revise any time soon. Even in tennis, life is a marathon, not a sprint.
Watching Flavia Penetta make a run to the Quarterfinals at the 2011 US Open, made me think of Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis, Stefi Graf, Chris Evert, Hana Mandlikova, Tracey Austin, Andrea Jaeger, Kim Clijsters, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Navratilova, and Venus and Serena. Which inevitably led to that sly fox, Richard Williams, who almost fathered the greatest women's tennis player of all-time.
Flavia is twenty-nine years-old, which, just ten years ago, was ancient in tennis years. But things have obviously changed, since the best player in the women's draw this year is about to turn thirty (Happy almost Birthday Serena!). Penetta was highly rated as a junior and was projected to be a likely Grand-Slam winner after she turned pro in 2000, at the age of 18. She has not cashed in on those projections, but she has defeated some entrenched tennis expectations. In the past four seasons, Penetta has stayed relevant, more so even, despite the fact that she's pushing thirty. She's more well-rounded, fitter, stronger and match tough that when she was young prospect. And she's not the only woman to flourish as she has gotten older. Her countrywoman Francesca Schiavone has done the same, becoming a Grand-Slam winner after the age of 28. Li Na won the French, her first, at 29.
But for a number of reasons, my generation grew up thinking that tennis players, women and men, but women in particular, became primed for the professional ranks at age 15 and were spent by the age of 22. I didn't include Agassi, Becker, and Sampras in the list above, but they too were huge influences on this perception that youth was the main thing served on the tennis court.
A quick look at tennis history, though a relatively small sample in terms of total years, shows that the earlier one tries to play with the big girls, the true "women" of the WTA, the greater the pitfalls and the greater the likelihood that your career will be shorter than Amanda Coezer (she's very small).
Hana Mandlikova, while not the first or only girl to enter the women's ranks was one of the first to win a grand slam after turning pro before she was able to drive. She retired at 28 and hadn't been a factor in majors since she was 25. Both Martina N. and Chrissy turned pro after their 18th birthday. And while they both played thousands of hours of competitive tennis before becoming officially "professional," neither of them put the "Pro" mantle on their shoulders before the age of majority. Martina and Chrissy won majors into their 30's. Martina won doubles Slams as a 40 year-old. Margaret Court was a pro at 18, Billie Jean waited until she was 24. Mandlikova, Austin, Jaeger, and Graf were the big names that began the trend towards younger and younger professional status. Jaeger went pro at 14 and was done with a shoulder injury at age 19. Graf went pro at age 13, though Steffi's dad had the benefit of Jaeger's example, and held Steffi back in terms of number of tournaments she played in before age 18. She went on to win more Slams than any woman, and perhaps could have won more, retiring the same year she won her final French Open. She was 30 at the time. Maybe a few more years just being an amateur lets Steffi have two or three more years winning Slams.
Jennifer Capriati serves as perhaps the final example that there is an invisible threshold between childhood and womenhood in professional tennis. A threshold that does not prevent girls from finding flashes of success in the ranks of women, but one that stops them cold from achieving a full and consistent career as a tennis playing woman. Capriati went pro at thirteen and won a Gold medal a year later. Not long after that, she was running away from home, snorting rails of speed in skeevy motels with guys who aren't welcome in most trailer parks. The fall comes quickly in tennis and Capriati, like Agassi, Jaeger and Hingis to follow, crashed hard. Amazingly, Jennifer was able to recover and mature and become a three time Slam winner. Jaeger never made a comeback, though Hingis did make a marginal return and Agassi found great success in his later years. He fought through back pain that would've crippled most of us. But the question is whether all of these players would've been better off if they'd been held back a little bit, if they'd been given room to be kids until they were chomping at the bit to play with the grown-ups? What if they didn't turn pro until they were unquestionably ready?
Richard Williams in what was, at the time, a very defiant stance held back Venus from Grand Slams until she was 17. Though she had turned pro as a 14 year-old, which was very much the trend at the time, he kept her tournament schedule severely limited. He wanted her to focus on school and training, and wanted to avoid some of the racial conflicts and controversy that were bound to arise until she was more mature.
Venus was immediately a force when she began competing in majors, making it to the finals of the US Open in her first time playing in the tournament. She lost to Hingis, but was clearly the rising star everyone had anticipated.
Serena began playing majors at an even younger age than Venus, even though Richard had held back Serena and limited her tournaments, also.
The USTA and numerous critics and analysts were sure that the girls needed to be competing at the highest level as soon as they could carry the big bags. Richard Williams was criticized for not have the girls play a full junior season of tournaments, of which there are nearly as many as there are Pro events. He wanted them to blossom into their careers.
In the end, he was both right and wrong. The girls did need time. Though they were physically and mentally prepared to compete at the age of 15, they were not yet ready for the career of tennis. Capriati was proof that physical capability does not mean that one should move faster than the psyche can process. But the statistics and the historical arcs of Venus and Serena's careers show us that Richard should have bucked the system for one more year and allowed the girls to become women before they took the court at Roland-Garros and the All-England Club. Both Serena and Venus, even with all their hardware, have still battled injury and apathy. They held the Doubles Grand Slam, all four trophys in one year. Serena won the Consecu-Slam. But Venus had nearly three years in her prime that were sapped by injury. Serena went on walkabout for a few seasons after 2003 and she's been injured often and has frequently showed evidence of suspect fitness training.
And yet, they are still playing. Venus has just been diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder that has affected her stamina and overall wellness, but she vows she'll try to return. Serena has been a pro for twelve seasons, but shows no signs that she can't play for five more years. If both of them had put off their professional status for another year, they might not have had those lulls, those nagging injuries that seem to happen to girls who have tried to beat women.
Serena, the most intimidating and all around talented player since Graf, number six on the all-time Grand Slam list, could have been even better. She might have won twenty majors, maybe more. One year more waiting to play with the big babes, as Mary Carillo calls them, and she might have been the greatest.
No comments:
Post a Comment