Billie Jean King, the grande dame of women's tennis, reckons Garbine Muguruza's stunning French Open triumph, especially the way she outhit Serena Williams, signals the start of a change of guard in women's tennis.
“Something’s wrong with Serena,” King added, saying Williams does not “have the same vim and vigour” of the past.
Of course, it is not our place to question King’s assessment, but there is actually not much wrong with Williams, at least not going by her results this year. She has played five tournaments and reached the final in four, and you certainly cannot fault a player making that many finals.
Yes, she has won only one of those four finals and lost three. Yes, she has never lost two consecutive grand slams finals in her career. She had lost only four times in the first 25 major finals of her career and now she has lost two on the trot.
On the surface, that would be cause for worry. But Williams is 34 now and has been on the circuit for more than two decades. Muguruza was still a few days short of her second birthday when Williams turned pro in 1995 and the Spaniard was five when the American won her first grand slam at the US Open in 1999.
So there will be days when Father Time will decide the fate of Williams’ matches. And then, there is the pressure of that historic milestone – the 22nd grand slam. Her bid to equal Steffi Graf’s record haul was cruelly brought to a halt at last year’s US Open, in front of adoring home fans, by Roberta Vinci and the scars from such a defeat, when she was only two wins away from a calendar grand slam as well, take time to heal.
That defeat, and the following loss to Angelique Kerber in the Australian Open final, have, of course, increased the pressure on Williams as she chases No 22, and pressure can do strange things. Like it did to Novak Djokovic in the 2015 French Open final, when Stan Wawrinka simply hit him off the courts.
Speaking of Wawrinka, we were talking about a change of guard in men’s tennis as well when he won the Australian Open in 2014, and we are still waiting for it to happen.
Likewise, Williams is not going anywhere anytime soon. She is still the No 1 player in women’s tennis and by some distance, and certainly the most consistent given all those finals. Kerber, who beat her in Melbourne, has reached only one other final this year and lost her last three matches. For Muguruza, the French Open was her first final of the year.
So consistency is in really short supply on the women’s tour and as long as that is the case, Williams will remain at the perch and eventually clinch that elusive grand slam No 22.
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