A Legend Remembered or Quickly Forgotten, How Sports can Alter Someone’s Life
Serena Williams is thought of by most to be the best female tennis player ever and the best tennis player ever, regardless of gender. However, her older sister, Venus, was ranked higher than she was earlier in their careers, but because of Serena’s latest successes, Venus has been somewhat forgotten. Elizabeth Well talks about this in Did Venus Williams Ever Get Her Due?
Venus had a great relationship with her father, who was her mentor and coach. Combine that with Venus’ 6’1” height, a 129 mile per hour serve and a wing-span greater than many other female tennis players and you have one of the best to ever play. However, she is not as well-recognized as she should be.
Venus was not well-received by fans or players due to her skin-color. In the 1997 U.S. Open semifinal, opponent Irina Spirlea shoulder-bumped Venus when changing sides. In a match a few years later, a fan referred to her dad as the n-word.
Well also writes that tennis was a sport with many fans being older white people. These people grew up during the Civil rights movement. None of this mattered to Venus though. She was someone who went about her business and was successful more often than not.
Venus was the older and superior sister that Serena. Venus was originally more successful in head-to-head matchups, winning three of her first four meetings in major tournaments against her younger sister. Well writes people knew Serena would be better, but since Venus started off the sibling rivalry more successful, was the prediction of Serena being better turning out to be false?
The narrative changed in the summer of 2002 when Serena beat Venus in the French Open final and at Wimbledon a month later. It looked like there’d be an equal sibling rivalry of two sisters battling to share the spotlight.
Both sisters were very successful and climbed their way up the leaderboards for most Grand Slam titles in history. Their back and forth family rivalry continued for about a decade, so how was Venus forgotten?
Enter 2011. Venus was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s Syndrome.
It’s hard to argue the diagnosis didn’t impact Venus, at least at first. Between 2011 and 2016, Venus only made to one Grand Slam semifinal, Wimbledon in 2016, and lost. This stretch of losing immediately had very negative impacts, as her ranking went from no. 5 in 2010 to no. 103 in 2011.
Serena was still always front and center though. On top of winning so much, she won the Australian Open in the beginning of her pregnancy. She is the active leader in Grand Slam titles and is third all-time.
Serena spent a lot of 2017 on maternity leave, and that was the year Venus had a renaissance. While she did not win a tournament, she earned more money than any female on tour and was ranked fifth by the end of the year. When Serena returned in 2018, Venus dropped to fortieth, which brought up the thought of Venus only being successful if her little sister is not on the court.
Today, Serena ranks higher than Venus. She also leads in head-to-head matchups 19–12 and has 39 Grand Slam titles to Venus’ 23. Despite her sister having more success and being the one talked about more by fans, one cannot the write the story of tennis without Venus Williams, and that’s why people think she has not gotten her due.
This story could best be told with a documentary highlighting the rivalry and success of the sisters, Venus’ diagnosis and how Serena became a more household name than her sister. The people that should be interviewed for the documentary are people that saw Venus play to establish more credibility as to why Venus should not be forgotten. This story emphasizes the theme of blood being thicker than water and nothing being stronger than or able to break the bond of Venus and Serena.
Sometimes, athletes are viewed as bigger than life and greater than humans. People have such an infatuation with them, and they are put on a higher pedestal than anyone else. That is the cast with Roger Federer in Chloe Cooper Jones’ Champion Moves.
If it’s not Serena Williams, Roger Federer is thought to be the best tennis player in the world. Him and his rival, Rafael Nadal, were facing off in the 2017 Australian Open final, and tickets were as high as $20 thousand. This reflects not only what is at stake in this matchup, but also the popularity of being around these two men, especially Federer.
This attraction was something that even people who are not tennis fans can resist. Jones, who had no knowledge of or experience writing about tennis, still wanted to be sent to the big game because she couldn’t afford tickets. She was able to get Rolling Stone to send her to cover the tournament.
It’s amazing how Jones just threw herself into the fire to see what the hype was about. She had no experience writing about tennis, so her writing about the tournament, especially for a major magazine like Rolling Stone, was a major risk.
Jones did not fit in with other reporters covering the tournament. She says she forgot she’s not supposed to cheer while in the press box, forgot her question when she was supposed to ask Federer one at a press conference, took pictures when she was not supposed to and was even questioned as to whether she reports on tennis often.
Jones had some mess-ups along the way and was even rejected by her editor when she called him about writing a few different stories and he said no to all of them. She took a major risk because if she did worse, she potentially could’ve been rejected by some places when looking for work if word got around more that she didn’t do a good job while covering the Australian Open.
It was not just Jones who succumbed to Federer’s greatness. People were calling him a genius and his play a form of art. A married woman, who was with her husband, was going nuts when she saw him practicing.
Athletes, actors, musicians or any celebrity in general seems to often have this presence of being higher than human, even though they are just a human. This story details how much love Federer receives from his fans. If there is a documentary about Federer made in the future, Jones should definitely be included because it’d be interesting and amusing for viewers to hear about someone wanting to cover the tournament when not even having a background with tennis.
In tennis and all other sports, one big play or hit can not only end an athlete’s career but also have lifelong and negative consequences. Usually, people try to move on and learn to live with whatever ramifications they must make. They usually don’t turn into trials.
In Steve Politi’s He Told a Kid to Slide. Then He Got Sued., that is exactly what happened. Jake Mesar slid into third base just like a normal slide on any baseball play that suggests doing so. However, he permanently damaged his ankle, and John Suk, the third base coach at the time, was sued.
Suk says he told Mesar to slide about six feet before he was set to reach third. He was trying to stretch a double into a triple and slid into third on what Suk said was a bang-bang play. That was the last time Mesar slid or ever played a baseball game.
Mesar suffered from post-traumatic arthritis and showed signs of necrosis, meaning the bone was dying. His life expectancy due to constant surgeries, depression, stress, panic attacks and damage to his ankle dropped to 59.6 years. His ankle was so bad that amputation was a possibility.
Mesar was the best player on his junior varsity team and was already playing varsity basketball as a freshman. Because of the way his life changed for the worse after the slide, he took this to court.
Suk eventually received seven votes “No” and one vote “Yes” to eventually not be convicted after the jurors redeliberated.
How could this be brought to court though? How can someone prove Suk was acting recklessly and the damage done to Mesar’s ankle was premeditated?
This is an interesting thought because when does this happen on the professional level? Bo Jackson, Ki-Jana Carter, Herb Score and others suffered from injuries that were either career-ending or prevented them from being the athlete they once were. They did not sue the NFL or MLB, and they play on a higher stage than high school, so what made this case different?
This story popularizes the theme and life lesson to take life one day at a time and make every day count because you never know when something will be gone. Mesar was someone who potentially could’ve made a living playing sports, but in an instant, that chance was taken away by something that seemed so natural but turned out so costly.
This relates to the current pandemic the whole world faces. As dark as it is, life is not guaranteed, especially in this time. With a global recession and a virus that has killed millions in just over a year, no one should or can take life for granted because one day, their job, livelihood, a family member or their own life can be gone.
This story should be in a documentary, and there are many different angles to this story. Someone could make a documentary, or a TV series about youth sports could tell the story of Mesar’s life in an episode. Someone could make a documentary, or a TV series of infamous court cases could tell the story of the court case that ensued in an episode, even though it was seven years after the slide originally happened.