What more is there to say about the now-retired Serena Williams? Plenty.

Tennis Honors: Naomi Osaka on Serena Williams' impact

To send off Serena Williams, we spoke with some of the writers who have known her for the longest, thanks to their reporting in the field.

Evolving for 30 years

The first time I met Serena Williams, not many people, other than her father, Richard, were tooting her horn. All eyes that day—April 24, 1992—were on her older sister, Venus.

Arthur Ashe asked me to come to Philadelphia to see Venus, then just 11 years old, and Serena, 10, play an exhibition at his youth tennis center. I had already heard a fair amount about these two pre-pubescent prodigies from depressed Compton, Calif., and I was intrigued.

Venus was all arms and legs, flinging herself to the net at every opportunity. Her smile was as wide as the Sahara desert.

Serena, just 15 months younger than her sister, was significantly shorter, a bit stout—and infinitely more serious. She wasn’t out there for fun; she was there for approval.

That was 30 years ago, and I often think back to that day and to Richard’s pronouncement that Serena would turn out to be the better player. I also believe the sisters aren’t that different than they were as kids. Venus seems to derive pure joy from melodically striking the ball; Serena’s enthusiasm comes from brute force. And from winning.

I have interviewed Serena countless times and written about her for myriad publications. I cringed when she threatened to “shove” a ball down the throat of a lineswoman who called her for a match-defining foot fault during her US Open semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters in 2009. And felt a pit in my stomach when Naomi Osaka began to cry during her post-match press conference, after Serena had hijacked the youngster’s US Open celebration in 2018 by verbally attacking the chair umpire.

My heart ached for Serena when she fell just short of capturing a true Grand Slam by losing to 43rd-ranked Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of the 2015 U.S. Open. I, like others, wonder how many majors she would have won if only…

But mostly, I have taken great pleasure in watching Serena evolve. It’s not lost on me that she chose the word “evolve” over “retirement” to describe her exit from pro tennis. She’s been evolving ever since she was 10 years old.—Cindy Shmerler

Three Legendary Takeaways

And so Serena Williams has put her racquet down for good, closing the curtain on a magnificent career lasting a quarter of a century and featuring an Open Era record 23 Grand Slam singles titles. I, for one, will remember her for a multitude of qualities. She has been a singularly arresting champion who fundamentally altered the course of women’s tennis, a champion of rare stature believed by many to be the greatest female player ever, and a transcendent sports figure.

But I will think of Serena primarily for three chief reasons.

First and foremost, her potent and elegant serve is the greatest ever in the women’s game. Her motion is flawless. There are no hitches. Her mechanics are so sound that her serve has never broken down, carrying her to countless majors. Her combination of speed, disguise and precision has been unassailable.

My next Williams memory is of this supreme competitor imposing her will with a ferocity seldom if ever surpassed in the sport. No one was more fearless under pressure or better at battling from behind. Two vivid recollections I have among many: her improbable victory from 1-5 down in the third set—saving two match points—against Kim Clijsters in the 2003 Australian Open semifinals (before defeating her sister Venus for the title); and her escape from 3-5 in the third set of the 2012 US Open final, when she swept four games in a row to beat Victoria Azarenka.

Finally, I will forever recall her transformation as a player who celebrated one of the longest runs ever in the upper regions of the game across four different decades. Her best sustained tennis was during her 30s, under the guidance of the cerebral Patrick Mouratoglou, who made Williams look at the game more academically than ever before. Between 2012 and 2017, she captured ten Grand Slam singles titles, and nearly won the calendar year Grand Slam in 2015. Williams fully embraced the history of the game, relished her place among its elite performers, and established herself as the ultimate professional in the Mouratoglou years.

That is the version of Serena Williams I will remember most of all.—Steve Flink

Serena Williams had not hit a competitive ball in pro tennis when I first set eyes on her. She was the little sister, bouncing around in big sister’s wake, as Venus prepared for her first WTA match at the age of 14 in Oakland, Calif. Despite not playing a junior tournament match for the previous three years, Venus beat South Africa’s Shaun Stafford, ranked 50th in the world, and went on to take a set off Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, then the world No 2.

So all eyes were on Venus, but Richard Williams soon put me straight. I met the man they finally dubbed King Richard at a downtown hotel, but we had to stroll along Broadway to chat. “I smoke,” he growled. “So we can’t stay in the hotel.”

The father whose two daughters would become global icons in women’s sport, was happy to talk of Venus and how ready she was for her first pro match, but he soon guided the conversation to Serena.

“Venus is wonderful but Serena will be better,” he said firmly. “The coaches who have watched her all say that. As you may know, I started teaching the girls out of a book but, from what I’ve learned, it’s clear to me, too. Serena is such a natural ball hitter. She’ll win big. She’ll be No 1.”

Venus is wonderful, but Serena will be better. Richard Williams

As Serena, like Venus, had not been allowed to play any junior tournaments, this prediction veered towards the ridiculous. But we were about to find out if there was any substance to the boast Richard had made about four years earlier that both girls would win Wimbledon and become world No 1s. Venus provided the first inkling that it might hold water the next day as the tall, composed elder sister dealt so imperiously with Stafford.

But we knew nothing of Serena. Wearing blue jeans and sneakers, she followed us after the match as we were led to a local high school where her 14-year-old sister was due to address the students with a motivational speech. She did that with aplomb, too, having been trained as a Jehova’s Witness. Serena just sat in the audience, undetected, watching. She was little more than a rumor. But her mother, Oracene, was just as confident as Richard that they were on the right path.

“I took them out of junior tournaments because I didn’t like the environment,” she told me later. “It had nothing to do with race. It was just that the parents were so bitchy. I didn’t want the girls having anything to do with that.”

Briefly, in 1995, when she failed in her first efforts to qualify for a WTA main draw, we wondered if all the hype was justified. Making it into the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, she lost to Kimberly Po in the first round, but Serena finally made the break through at the Ameritech Cup in Chicago in 1997, beating Elena Likhovtseva, Mary Pierce and Monica Seles before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the semifinal. So that was what Richard had been telling me about—power, speed, tenacity. It was all there, and would soon be launching the little sister on a trophy-laden career that may never be equaled.—Richard Evans