Prologue

The naysayers had written her off. They said she was finished. They said that there was a new kid on the block. They said the Queen was on drugs. Some even called her a beast and a man. They said mother age had finally caught up with the Queen; her best days were behind her.

But the Queen ignored their negativity. She went to the courts. Day and night she worked hard to silence the player haters. Sister Serena remained focused and fixed her eyes on the prize. She landed in New York fired up and ready to go. She demolished all along her path and now she is on top.

Since then, the story has changed. The media had to rewrite the headline news. The player haters have been forced to grovel at the feet of the Queen. The Queen is back and Sister Serena has not even started.

Throughout her career, Sister Serena has been written off many times, only for her to come back and prove people wrong. In my third “They Said” series, I chronicle various things said against the Queen. This series covers the period starting from the 2014 Australian Open up to the conclusion of the 2014 US Open.

For earlier versions of the series click the link below:

Series 1

Series 2

Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA

September 2014

They Said

After her loss at the Australian Open in January 2014, THEY SAID

“Yeah, the classless arrogant Serena is gone. Now we don’t have to listen to endless commentary about her. She is the worst example of sportsmanship there is. It’s sad to think of younger players looking up to her…She is nothing but a bully and a blowhard!” – Henry Sadowski

“Serena is a primate. Glad to see ANYONE beat her….but when it’s my favorite honey Ana who crushed her, it just made it all that much SWEETER…..- ”Aku Si Bo

“Looks like the beauty kicked the beast in the teeth and took her to the curb… Congrats Ana!- ”Johnny Morris

After her loss to Alize Cornet in June 2014 at Wimbledon, THEY SAID

“The 17-time major champion has now failed to make it to the quarterfinals in four of her last five majors—the notable exception being her U.S. Open victory in 2013. It’s time to face the music: Serena is 32 years old, and she’s been playing majors for the last 17 years. Age is catching up to her.”-Lindsay Gibbs

“The female Mr T doesn’t like losing very much does she? Sore loser.”  – Robert (Daily Mail online comment)

“But there’s no doubting that the days of greatness aren’t a given like they used to be. Three early losses at Slams in a row isn’t a coincidence or a fluke; it’s a trend. It’s unfortunate, but even the legends can’t outrun the aging process.”- Lindsay Gibbs

After she was affected with a virus at Wimbledon, THEY SAID

“This is not an illness, it’s almost like she has taken something that makes her feel dizzy, disoriented, and she cannot reach up and strike the ball.”-Pam Shriver

“It will be interesting. Is it a virus? Is it something unintentional or intentional in her system that they may drug test for whatever reason something has affected her?”- Chris Evert

“Well they do have drug testing at all the majors and there will be a lot of speculation about what in the world is wrong with Serena Williams and we will find out as much as we can.”-Pam Shriver

“Everybody was put in such a difficult position, including the WTA. It’s not right. It defies logic on so many fronts. The coach said he hadn’t seen her for two days. He didn’t know anything. How can you be a coach and not know anything? That’s wrong. And Venus was just kind of there. You don’t know what’s going on, but virus was not it, that much is clear.”–Martina Navratilova

“Was Serena drug-tested after the match? If so, what were the results? The International Tennis Federation is in charge of drug testing at Grand Slam tournaments. The organization will not discuss specific cases but does say that “samples are collected on both a random and targeted basis. There is no rule which specifies when a player may [or may not] be tested.”-Melissa Isaacson

“Is Father Time playing a role? Williams has always been able to bounce back from low points and restore her confidence. But what will it take this time? Serena turns 33 on Sept. 26, and she hasn’t advanced past the fourth round of a Grand Slam this year.”-Melissa Isaacson

On 21 February 2014, THEY SAID

Serena will not win another GS. You heard it first here. This is how it starts. Age finally catches up with all athletes-Living (Online forum)

In a debate on whether age is catching up with Serena, THEY SAID

“This is what it looks like when age starts encroaching on an athlete’s career, even a great athlete’s, even the greatest tennis player of her time and perhaps of all time…. Frankly, it is not a signal we should need at this point. Williams is 32 years old, 33 in September, and almost-33-year-olds don’t recover as quickly from injuries and even from tournament to tournament and match to match.”-Melissa Isaacson

On 02 July 2014, THEY SAID

“With every lingering injury, every loss to a Garbine Muguruza, it is easier to believe that Williams equaling or surpassing the 18-Grand Slam title mark of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert in the Open era (Steffi Graf has 22) might not happen.”-Melissa Isaacson

After her first round victory at the US Open, THEY SAID:

“How important was it to get to the second round? You used to take it for granted”

AFTER SISTER SERENA’S SECURED HER SIXTH US OPEN TITLE and 18^TH GRAND SLAM ON 7 SEPTEMBER 2014 THEY NOW SAY :

“We all admire her greatness…History will remember Serena Williams as setting the most ridiculously high bar for women tennis and now she knows her place in history”-Chris Evert

“People kept asking Serena the last year, ‘How’s it going to feel to be in the same company with Martina and Chrissie?’ and I’m thinking to myself, Well, I’m the one who’s honored to have Serena in the same sentence.”-Chris Evert

“Anyone who likes sports should love Williams’s dazzling combination of talent, persistence, style, unpredictability, poise, and outsized, heart-on-her-sleeve flaws. But not everyone loves her. Part of this is owing to the duelling -isms of American prejudice, sexism, and racism, which manifest every time viewers, mostly men, are moved to remark on Williams’s body in a way that reveals what might most charitably be called discomfort.”-Ian Crouch

“It firmly just puts into your mind that absolutely she will go down in history as the greatest female tennis player of all time”-Patrick McEnroe

“18×3=54 @serenawilliams @ChrissieEvert @martina loved how Martina kept Caroline representing all of us with 0 in pic”-Pam Shriver on Twitter

“Simply put, it’s highly unlikely we will ever see someone like Serena on a tennis court. The tennis gods seemed to create her just like we’d create an avatar in a video game: setting every available skill to the highest possible level. It can be argued that few humans, if any, have ever been endowed with such immense gifts for playing the sport of tennis.”-Rolling Stone

“Serena does not seem to be going anywhere. Much as the ancient almost-33-year-old gave us reasonable cause to wonder about her future after failing to get past the fourth round of the first three majors of 2014 and exiting Wimbledon in a well-documented cloud of doubt, she was back to her indomitable self at the Open. Or at least strong enough to win the title without dropping a set.”-Melissa Isaacson

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THEY CAN SAY WHAT THEY WANT TO SAY, BUT EACH TIME THEY SAY, THE QUEEN CONTINUES TO RESPOND WITH THREE WORDS THAT HAVE STOOD THE TEST OF TIME

LET THEM SAY