"For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde,
Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde."
Goeffrey Chaucer, The Clerk's Tale
Time waits for no man. Not even Serena Williams.
Tennis matches are duels. We attach narratives to them and treat them as metaphors of some greater reality. Last night we saw the grand champion ground down by the passage of time.
Last night's tennis match was not a bullfight. This was no predestined narrative of doom. Anything could have happened. In the prior round of the U.S. Open tournament Serena Williams had come from behind to defeat the woman ranked number two in the world. Williams, for two decades the grand woman of tennis, had announced her retirement after this final tournament. The stage was set for a grand finale. Possibly she would finish her career on top, with another tournament win. The crowd was there to see this spectacular conclusion to a spectacular career.
She lost last night to 29-year-old Ajla Tomljanović.
Williams had taken a break from tennis to bear her first child. This was a come-back performance before her permanent retirement. She said her decision to end a career of elite tennis was to make room for motherhood, a second child, and her fashion career. The politically inclined could see Williams' career as another narrative, an iteration of the familiar story of the inequality of gender biology and career. Females experience pregnancy and bear children. Williams is 40 and turns 41 later this month. She is running out of time. A male could sire a child and carry on an uninterrupted career as an elite athlete. This was the familiar dilemma for women. For Williams, two roads diverged and she could not travel both, not at the same time, not at the elite level.
Williams was expected to win last night's match. Williams had already dispatched someone presumably more formidable. The 29,000 people in the crowd were overwhelmingly on Williams' side, cheering the champion's points. They also cheered Tomljanović's faults and unforced errors, something tennis crowds normally do not do. Tomljanović was the scrappy unloved competitor taking on the beloved hero. All the attention was on Serena Williams. The match was an episode in Williams' story: Would Williams win? The match offers another metaphor and narrative. You are hit by the bus coming from the direction you aren't looking. Not that people noticed, but there was a second story being told: Tomljanović's.
Last night's match felt like a Greek tragedy to me. It was unscripted, but having played out, we see the end was inevitable after all. As in any tragedy, a person of significance is brought down by a flaw in the hero's nature. Williams' flaw wasn't one of moral character. We saw her grace and effort. Her tragic flaw was time and biology. Williams was big, strong, and tired, and showing her age. The highlight reels of the match neglect to show what I considered the most telling element of the match. As Williams awaited to receive a serve she swayed back and forth, feet planted. Tomljanović skipped and jumped, with feet bouncing. Three hours into the match Tomljanović had nervous energy. Williams had had her turn. Now it was the turn of people who skip and bounce between serves.
This is a political blog, so I will make a quick political point. Elite power, like elite tennis championships, is not given up gracefully. Tomljanović defeated her. Biden, Trump, Pelosi, Hoyer, Schumer, Feinstein, Grassley and the others did not get power so they could give it up gracefully. Someone will pull it from their aging fingers.
Professional tennis is an amazing battle. Sebrena reigned so long and so beautifully you can't do anything but appreciate all she has accomplished. Other fine tennis players come in second to Sebrena.
Very good message for all of us