For Serena, so much has changed and so much has not

9:02 pm | August 27, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:

12:47 AM ET

NEW YORK — The sweep of Serena Williams‘ career was artfully and poignantly captured in a new Nike spot in which footage of her father coaching her as a child is spliced together with clips of the champion in her prime.

“This is you at the US Open,” the familiar voice of Richard Williams tells the little girl, who cracks a mini-me serve, followed by the full-grown woman unleashing a full-throttle version on the very center court she visualized all those years ago.

Serena emerged from the tunnel at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night carrying the portfolio of greatness accumulated in the interim, yet her opening match was tinged with some of the same uncertainty she must have felt in her New York City debut in 1998. Nothing has been routine for her this season, and everyone watching knows it.

The superstructure for the open roof at Ashe trapped the muggy air and amplified the ardent cheering as Williams was introduced before her meeting with Poland’s Magda Linette. Williams’ agent, Jill Smoller, called it “applause with a hug.” The crowd noise swelled again when Williams successfully challenged a line call and again when she secured the only service break she needed in the first set. As she settled into a rhythm and cruised through the second set in 28 minutes to win 6-4, 6-0, the crowd settled back in appreciation.

This is she at the 2018 US Open, taking no shot for granted. Already up 2-0 on Linette’s serve, Williams lashed a forehand winner to earn a break point, channeled all of her competitive stress into a colossal scream, balled up her fist and pivoted to face the crowd with her face scrunched in ferocious satisfaction.

Williams has been such a societal force this season that it’s easy to forget that this is only her seventh tournament. She won a couple matches at Indian Wells, lost early at Miami and eschewed the entire clay season. But she visibly drew closer to her old self round by round at the French Open. Williams played for the title at Wimbledon, then struggled on the hard courts this summer, though her second-round loss to Petra Kvitova in Cincinnati was one of the most scintillating WTA matches of the year.

Williams made some news conferences this year feel intimate in their disclosures about motherhood, motivation and vulnerability. Her brand came untethered from her competitive performance and expanded exponentially, flooding mainstream magazine covers and filling five episodes of a reality series on HBO.

Her wardrobe — from the pastel dress with matching fascinator she wore to the Royal Wedding to her bold yet pragmatic French Open catsuit — became a global fixation and, more recently, a global discussion when the head of the French Tennis Federation inexplicably singled out the catsuit for criticism.

Williams isn’t interested in fueling that polemic, but there’s no chance that she will ever fall back on ordinary apparel. Her outfit for Monday’s match, with an asymmetrical top and a ballerina skirt she twirled for effect after winning the match, was designed by Virgil Abloh, an African-American mold-breaker in his own right, known for his Milan-based Off-White fashion house and named artistic director for Louis Vuitton menswear earlier this year.

After dispatching Linette, Williams was subdued in the interview room and clearly in a hurry to get back to see her almost 1-year-old daughter, Olympia, who didn’t attend the night session because of the hour and the long drive between Manhattan and Queens.

“It’s different because it’s a much further ride away, obviously,” Williams said, referring to the shorter commutes at other Grand Slam events. “I have to take an extra two hours in transit that I’m not going to see her.

“It’s OK, though. I’m enjoying. I’m still learning to put my mask on myself. I think this is almost in a weird way helping me.”

Then she took over from the moderator and brought the session to a close. Her next opponent will be Germany’s Carina Witthoeft. Serena’s sister Venus, back to back with her as the 16th and 17th seeds, respectively, looms in the third round if they both advance that far.

The third round was as far as Serena got in the 1998 US Open. She was a 16-year-old with coils of lavender, white and yellow beaded braids framing her face, fresh off final exams in physics and Algebra II and still a couple credits shy of her high school diploma.

Aside from her obvious talent, there were flashes of her future aura during the first week of that tournament, as she light-heartedly sparred with reporters. At one juncture, she delivered a tutorial on the origin of the word “ghetto,” a word repeated in some early profiles of her and her sister. It was an early sign that she would push back against easy stereotypes.

Back in August 1998, with her parents’ support just starting to bear fruit, Williams told reporters about one piece of advice from her father that, in retrospect, might have come to define her more than any tennis technique:

“My dad always said negative attention is better than no attention, so, as long as the truth lives inside of us and we know what the truth is, that stuff really doesn’t bother you,” she said back then.

That is Serena, now.