The greatest tennis player of all time is going to play in the tournament. One side is in need of the other more than ever. Serena Williams doesn't drink.
The All England Club announced this week that Williams will be given a wild-card entry to play in the singles tournaments in order to win her 24th Grand Slam singles title after a year off.
People are watching Williams play. Williams is going to help The All England Club. She doesn't require them. She's needed by the tournament and sport. As a legendary sports icon that changed the way her sport is played and viewed, and as an athlete that makes more money off the court than she does on it, at age 40, referring to Williams as someone who plays tennis instead of just viewing her as a "tennis player" isn'
Williams would be fine if she woke up tomorrow and decided to retire. Tennis wouldn't Seven times, Williams has won Wimbledon as a solo act. After Serena Williams retired in the first round with an injury during last summer's tournament, the finals between Ashleigh Barty and Karolna Plkov averaged just 1.09 million viewers, which was down 55 percent from the previous year's finals. It was the smallest audience for a Wimbledon singles final since the event was exclusively aired by Disney.
If you look at the winners of that tournament on the women's side, you'll see that nobody moves the needle like a "Williams". There is no disrespect to the talents of Maria Sharapova, Amélie Mauresmo, Petra Kvitov,Marion Bartoli, Garbie Muguruza, and Simona Halep.
Let me ask you this
Are you aware of them?
Are you aware of their names?
Do you not? Wimbledon knows that and is giving Williams a wild card. They need her to play. Tennis needs Williams on the court because of the way the women's side is going.
Over the last year or so, the sport that still takes issue with a black woman being the face of it, has shown us that it doesn't want Naomi Osaka around. The entry list for the tournament has Osaka on it. She was leaning towards not playing a sport. Coco Gauf, the 18-year-old who just made her first Grand Slam finals appearance when she lost in the French Open earlier this year, is still finding her way in the sport, despite the public and media putting unrealistic expectations on her.
The sport of tennis and its biggest tournament have been looking for someone to replace Serena Williams for a long time, and haven't been able to find an adequate replacement that brings the same kind of energy, intrigue, and ratings that she does. That is bad for tennis. It is a good thing for us. Serena Williams is in high demand at Wimbledon because it means that we need to see the best to ever do it.
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