Fierce and Fiercer

In the two days—has it only been two days?—since the U.S. women’s soccer team won the World Cup, there has been a lot of optimistic talk in the States about this country’s newfound appreciation for women’s sports. To the joy and surprise of many, the women's blowout win over Japan drew TV ratings that were three times higher than for any game involving a U.S. men’s team.

Soon, of course, another, less-optimistic round of talk may begin. People may ask, as they always ask about soccer in the U.S. after a World Cup: What next? Where does women’s sports in the States go from here?

To which I can only respond, with hope: Across the pond to England. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate follow-up to the World Cup than the four women’s quarterfinals that were staged at Wimbledon this afternoon. In the old days, when NBC opened its broadcast of the tournament’s second Tuesday, legendary commentator Dick Enberg would greet viewers by brightly chirping, “It’s ladies day!” After the 2015 version, the phrase seems a little quaint, doesn’t it?

This year, fans were treated to the most fiercely entertaining afternoon of the fortnight thus far. These were the last eight players in what Wimbledon still refers to as the Ladies Singles draw, but there was nothing genteel, or decorous, or unduly modest about the way they competed. Serves were smashed, backhands were bludgeoned, fists were pumped, tempers were flared, screams were unleashed, and for the most part matches were won rather than lost.

Centre Court began by welcoming an enthusiastic new face. Twenty-three-year-old CoCo Vandeweghe was making her first appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, but you wouldn't have known it from the way she strutted across Centre Court between points and raised the roof after winning the second-set tiebreaker. Yet Vandeweghe's moxy only made her opponent's eventual win more impressive.

That opponent was Maria Sharapova, an old hand at the Centre Court strut. But this was not the Russian at her best or most confident. Sharapova played this match the way she might carry an egg: Carefully, gingerly, one small step at a time. Her serve had a mind of its own—she double-faulted 10 times—and her forehand wandered into the alley as often as it found the corner. But when she needed to stop Vandeweghe’s momentum at the start of the third set, Sharapova found a way to start constructing points, and found her way to a quick 3-0 lead; she won 6-3, 6-7, 6-2. This time, experience had trumped enthusiasm.

As entertaining as their match was, Maria and CoCo were just the warm-up for the main event: Serena vs. Vika. This was the WTA's No. 1 facing her foremost challenger of recent years. Since 2010, only two women have beaten Williams more than once: Alizé Cornet has managed, somehow, to do it three times, and Azarenka has done it twice. This spring, Vika almost pulled it off two more times, in Madrid and Paris, but on both occasions Serena rallied from what looked like certain defeat to win.

Azarenka has slowly, in stops and starts and dribs and drabs, put her game back together after a long layoff in 2014; today she was determined to take the final step. Serena, as much as she didn’t want to hear it, began the day 10 wins from a calendar-year Grand Slam; she was equally determined not to let Vika through the door. Their head-on collision produced the match of the fortnight.

It began with Azarenka playing at full-throttle. She controlled with her backhand, finished with her forehand, and defended with both; even her serve, typically a match-losing liability against Serena, was sharp and effective. Azarenka grabbed the initiative early, and kept her grip on it through the first set.

The match also began with Vika, and eventually Serena, in full throat. The Centre Court audience tittered at the screams the two women emitted, and then gasped when they saw the shots they created. Eventually, the titters subsided, while the gasps of appreciation remained. The match, it was soon clear to everyone, was no laughing matter. Its constant stream of shrieks and fist-shakes and “Come on!”s signaled that this was tennis in its rawest, most overtly competitive—and thus truest—form, with the old-fashioned masks of politeness torn away. Williams-Azarenka may not have been an argument for grunting, exactly, but it made the strongest case I’ve seen that complaining about it is beside the point. Who would have asked, or wanted, these two women to hold anything back today?

“I think we put on a great show together, really,” Azarenka said afterward. “I really think it’s been awhile since there was that high quality of women’s tennis.”

Serena agreed. “I feel like Victoria and I always have really wonderful matches,” she said. “She’s always able to push it to three sets—we always have some great three-set matches.”

The WTA has been waiting for a new challenger for Serena; on Tuesday it found it in the form of an old one, Azarenka. Just seeing Vika wheeling and dealing on Centre Court again was enough to give the sport a needed jolt.

In the end, though, this match served, as so many matches have in the past, as another showcase for what makes Serena a special athlete. Azarenka’s level was so high through the first set and a half that the only thing Serena could do was take the racquet out of her hands. So she did. Serena finished with 17 aces and 46 winners against just 12 errors. In the first set, she was lifting up too early on her forehand, but when she needed the shot later, it was there. After losing her first-set momentum during two long games in the second, Azarenka’s serve did falter, and errors did come. She double-faulted six times and won just 37 percent of points on her second serve.

Yet even when she was behind in the third set, Azarenka doubled-down on the fist-pumps, the exhortations, and the energy. Seeing her fiery display as she looked across the net, Serena knew what she had to do. In her next game, she began with three aces and held at love. Positive energy can't do anything about that.

“I can’t lie and say I’m not disappointed,” Azarenka said, “because that’s a normal reaction. But it is what it is. It was a high-quality match. I can’t say I went out there and didn’t play well—we just saw why Serena is No. 1.”

As the winners kept detonating off Serena's strings, I thought her 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory, in its aggression and excellence, was a perfect complement to what the U.S. women’s soccer team had done on Sunday. It also a perfect message to the distant future, and to those who will, hopefully, have a better appreciation of female athletes. Put a tape of this match in a time capsule, and let sports fans centuries from now get a good look at what Serena Williams was all about.