AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2023: Tennis sans Serena begins in earnest

Tennis takes over from Serena Williams. It has to. Maybe not easy, considering how superior a character he was, on and off the field. But that’s what sports do, even when the superstars leave. They all go, of course, and the sport always goes on.

Matches are played, new stars emerge, fans continue to watch. And Williams will of course be missed. By the viewers. Directors of tours, tournaments and television. By other athletes.

And when the 2023 Australian Open begins on Monday (Sunday evening EST), the first Grand Slam tournament since his farewell at the US Open. in September, shortly before her 41st birthday, the owner of 23 major singles championships said she prefers the term “development” to retired tennis to get a real taste of what the post-Serena world looks like on the big stage.

That’s even if her influence doesn’t fade, as US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster said: She leaves an indelible legacy of grace that will inspire athletes, women and men, for generations to come.

There will certainly be those keeping an eye out for concrete data over the fortnight at Melbourne Park and this season and seasons to come. Figures such as attendance figures and TV ratings are parsed to assess the impact of the departure of someone who earned status as a one-name-only must-have celebrity.

However, in a way, all this is a bit beside the point.

His legacy is truly vast, so far that it cannot even be described in words. He changed the sport so much. “He brought people into the sport who have never heard of tennis,” said Naomi Osaka, the 25-year-old Japanese who has won four Grand Slam titles but has not played a full match since August and is entering the Australian Open. I honestly believe he is the greatest force in the sport. It’s not intentionally trying to make (Roger) Federer or (Rafael) Nadal smaller. I think he’s the greatest thing that will ever happen to the sport.

In recent decades, people may have worried about what would happen when Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova stopped playing. Or when Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors moved on. Or Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Or Steffi Graf. And so on.

It’s always a loss when great players leave. But I’ve been through six or seven generations of this, said Billie Jean King, a two-time International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee who won 12 Grand Slam titles in singles and another 27 in women’s or mixed doubles.

I mean, I remember when Sampras left and when Martina and Chris left. I was like: Oh no! What is happening? Well, Sampras was there, and guess what? There’s Roger Federer. There’s Nadal. … It’s the same thing with women. We now have Iga (Swiatek) who took over,” King said. Every generation gets better, and the depth of women’s tennis is better than ever, and Serena is somewhat responsible for that, because each generation builds on the last.

Shortly after Williams lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round at Flushing Meadows, another titan of tennis, 20-time champion Federer., announced his retirement. Federer had not played an official match in over a year due to multiple knee surgeries.

For Williams, there were times when he withdrew from the stretch competition, either due to health issues or simply because he wanted to spend time on other pursuits that he believed would contribute to his longevity.

WTA CEO and President Steve Simon believes those openings left room for some new faces to emerge in women’s tennis, such as current No. 1 Swiatek and American teenager Coco Gauff.

In any case, Serena has been playing on a so-called limited schedule for the past few years. So obviously we’ve got new stars coming up and certainly establishing themselves and doing well,” Simon said. But I see us continuing to celebrate Serena and I hope she comes back and plays another five or 10 years.

Good luck with that.

But what he brought to tennis, be it players or fans, should last long beyond that period.

Serena got a lot of people interested in our sport. And now it’s up to the next generation, King said. The media always goes to this every time: Oh, they’re leaving! Oh, what’s going on? Someone always rises to the top. The cream rises to the top.

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Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

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