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Serena Williams’ Heir Apparent is Nowhere to Be Found
- Updated: September 23, 2016
When Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou told CNN’s Motez Bishara and Ravi Ubha that the 35-year-old could win 30 grand-slam titles, it hardly felt like an impossible boast.
Whether or not Serena can win two majors a year for the next four years to tack onto her current total of 22, the point is that the American legend is the only one who can even think about this possibility.
Despite enduring an off-year racked with nagging injuries, culminating with a sore shoulder and knee for the U.S. Open—and despite playing in only eight tournaments—Serena managed to win Wimbledon and extend her No. 1 ranking for 186 weeks (a record-tying mark with Steffi Graf) before finally relinquishing the top spot to Angelique Kerber.
And yet, if Serena can get healthy for 2017 and peak for those most important four tournaments of the year, who’s going to stop her?
“I’m tired of playing tournaments unhealthy and taking losses that I would never lose,” Serena told Ubha and James Masters of CNN.
She said in WTA Tennis that will not be playing tournaments in China but will rather rest up and look to play in the year-end WTA finals in Singapore. So forget about the short-term possibility of dueling for the year-end No. 1 ranking, something that Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times tweeted:
Serena Williams pulling out of Wuhan and Beijing *should* all-but-clinch the #1 year end ranking for Kerber. https://t.co/nvxeH5JgU5
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) September 23, 2016
The big picture is more important for Serena. She intends on coming back fitter and better in 2017, ready to resume her reign over the WTA tour.
Meanwhile, Serena’s heir apparent—or even a dominant star for the foreseeable future—is nowhere to be found.
Nobody Else Able to Step into Serena’s Shoes
The first point to remember is that Serena has been dominant for nearly two decades. Nobody has put up her kind of numbers from being a teenager and entering her mid-30s. It’s insane to expect that anyone else ever will.
Furthermore, Serena and elder sister Venus revolutionized tennis with modern power, big forehands and serves that are still ahead of their time. They raised the bar two levels and virtually wiped out the generation that had established a wonderfully competitive time in the WTA.
By 2002, Serena was on her own pedestal, knocking aside the …
