THE tennisreporters.net NEWSLETTER: Saturday, july 24, No. 95

Super celebrity Serena grinding her way back
On sister's passing: 'I was shattered. I still am'

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

FROM THE JPMORGAN CHASE OPEN IN CARSON, CALIF. – When you’re the first tennis player to have a bobblehead doll cast in your image, what’s to worry? If you talk to Serena Williams about her off-court celebrity, it’s all good. She’s a high-octane girl who’s making the most of her early 20s.

Put a movie script in her hands, she’ll give it a good read. Tell her you need a sexy outfit for an awards show, she’ll design it. How about wrestling with bull-legged Russain not named Maria Sharapova in the JP Morgan Chase quarterfinals in Carson, California on Friday. Bring her on.

"I have so much energy, it’s crazy," said Serena who scored a rough 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Vera Zvonareva.

Tournament organizers gave away 5,000 Serena bobblehead dolls to fans at the Home Depot Center on Friday night. The promotion literally doubled the attendance over the day session to 7,749 fans on "Serena Williams bobblehead night" – the largest crowd to witness an outdoor tennis match in Los Angeles history. Here’s to the girl who grew up five miles down the road in Compton and fully integrated a tennis crowd for one night.
"I'm so excited it was the largest crowd and of course I was part of that match," Serena said. "I don't want to sound that I'm pontificating or anything, but I was part of the largest crowd – so far."

Her sister, Venus, says that having a bobblehead doll means you really made it into the big-time. Serena concurs. "It’s amazing," Serena said. "But I guess that happens when you become overly famous. Every week now, I get more famous."

For a tennis player, she’s gone beyond famous. Walking out of the Home Depot Center at 11:20 p.m, a fellow player’s coach pleaded with her to appear on a TV show with his girl. A few dozen kids were still waiting to get her autograph. She was exhausted, but signed anyway. All the while, she discussed how devastated she was by the murder of her half-sister Yetunde Price, in Compton, last September.

"I was shattered," she said. "I still am. I think about her every day. I can’t stop."

She’s now piecing her tennis back together. Since her knee surgery last August, former No. 1 Serena has lost her dominance. Yes, she could get back to a commanding position in the next two months, but even she knows that the chances of winning another "Serena Slam" again are infinitesimal.

There are simply too many good Russians out there. Plus, unlike last year, there are now Russians out there who have gone beyond the "potential tag" and showed they can close in big moments in the form of French Open champ Anastasia Myskina and Wimbledon titlist Maria Sharapova.

Serena had it great and had it rough after she underwent knee surgery on Aug. 1, 2003. She slept and partied for about six weeks and then had her good life fantasy shattered when her half-sister, Yetunde Price, was murdered in Compton.

"Things were going well and then it was tough because I knew I was going to lose my No. 1 ranking," said Williams, who ended up being off the tour for eight and half months. "I was really disappointed because I wouldn’t be able to defend my US Open title. Plus, I had a really exiting outfit I was going to wear in New York and never got a chance to wear it. No one really knows about all the rehab I had to go through. I learned a lot last year about life in general. I realized that tennis isn't the most important thing in your life and you can't take things for granted."

But after she mourned Yetunde’s death, Serena came alive again. She took acting lessons, she put on fashion shows, she went out with friends. She now longer had to wake up at the crack of drawn and get ready for practice. Like a normal 21-year-old, she went to bed a 4 am on Saturday night and woke up at noon. She reveled in her newfound freedom.

"I got to live life, too, so it was a double-edged sword," Serena said. said. "I got to hang out in LA and enjoy myself. Since I was three, I never had a long period when I wasn’t thinking about playing tennis. It was the most calming period of my life. You're only 21 once."

The Comeback is Tougher than expected

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Serena says that tennis is number three in her life behind god (she’s a Jehovah’s Witness) and family. But it’s an important number three. She’s says its so important that she willing to face up to the critics who say she doesn’t care and is only shining her sport on. She says she's made plenty of dough and truly believes she has a future in Hollywood and as a designer.

She also says that she underestimated how hard it would be to return to form. She returned in mid-March in Miami and wasted Elena Dementieva in the final, who will be her opponent in the JP Morgan Chase semis.

But life on-court got quite difficult after that, especially on clay, where she failed to reach a final in four tournaments and was exhausted by Jennifer Capriati at the French Open. She put up a tremendous fight at Wimbledon in an attempt to defend her title, but was too slow to catch up toSharapova’s laser shots.
"She treed [zoned] a little and I played really bad," Williams said. "She didn’t have anything to lose and I put too much pressure on myself. I don’t even think of her. I just think about the present and the future."

Serena is ranked No. 16 and although she has no points to defend between here and next March, she’s way too far behind the top three in the rankings to regain the top spot any time soon. She has to beat Dementieva on Saturday and then if she does so, either Lindsay Davenport or Venus on Sunday.

She says she willing to put in the time and energy because when you have your own bobblehead doll, you have a lot to live up to. Serena is realistic enough to know that if she doesn’t regain her elite status, the price of that doll of E-Bay will drop from $50 to $5 in a heartbeat.

But she can’t afford to think about that. It’s only a doll and dolls don’t win Grand Slams. "I need to focus more on me," she said. "If I keep working hard, I’ll be back where I belong."