For Serena Williams, her very essence can be summed up in nine short words: “expecting the best from myself and proving people wrong.”
In a first-person essay for Vogue earlier this month, the 23-time Grand Slam champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist dropped the blockbuster news that she would be “evolving away from tennis.” Hesitant to use the word “retirement” but undeniably laying out the strategy for her next chapter, the 40-year-old Williams wrote candidly about her desire to expand her family and her excitement at delving more into business via Serena Ventures, a capital venture firm.
But before turning the page to that next chapter, Williams appears poised for once last run at glory. She’ll take center stage Monday night at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where she’ll face 80th-ranked Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in a first-round match at the U.S. Open. How far she’ll go in the tournament remains to be seen, but Monday marks a full-circle moment for Williams, who won her first major title in New York 23 years ago.
During her nearly 30-year career, Williams won six singles titles and two doubles titles with her sister, Venus Williams, at Flushing Meadows, where she’ll team with Venus once more for doubles competition beginning Wednesday. As the countdown to Serena’s last stand ticks on, On Her Turf talked with several visual journalists who’ve enjoyed a courtside view to an icon in the making.
“It feels like the Super Bowl every time she plays,” said Getty Images photographer Sarah Stier. “She’s an athlete that really transcends her sport, … so when I cover her, I cover her like a Tom Brady.
“I’m always looking for these very like stoic moments because she is an athlete that’s going to be remembered for a very, very long time, even after she stops playing. And so my coverage of her goes beyond the action, and it goes, I think, even beyond the emotion. She is a very emotional athlete when she competes, but I think I’m always trying to look for a moment that will be timeless and will represent her in history as the greatest ever do it.”
However, it was Stier who captured a now infamous moment in Williams’ career, during her 2018 U.S. Open final match against Naomi Osaka. Upset by a warning from chair umpire Carlos Ramos, who said he witnessed a code violation for coaching, Williams unleashed on Ramos, saying in part, “I don’t cheat to win; I would rather lose. I am just letting you know.”
“It’s so hard because I feel like when these moments are happening right in front of you, you know that it’s going to be a very important story, and so you’re just kind of going through the motions to capture everything,” Stier recalls, admitting she also felt nervous in the moment as it was her first time shooting a Grand Slam final.
“I had no idea what she was arguing, I couldn’t really tell. But I do remember, I had to like watch things a few days later and decide was this controversial? Was it not? And people would ask me afterwards what I thought, and I think I still didn’t know, but I just think, ‘Okay, how many male athletes have we seen yell at a referee, tennis players yell at an umpire?’ And people were attacking her for how she handled this moment. And you could go on and on about how she could or couldn’t have handled the moment. But the bottom line is we’ve seen people do this before, and she doesn’t have to act a certain way just because she’s a woman.”
“No matter what it is, she’s always brings the same intensity and passion to whatever she does,” said fellow Getty Images photographer Elsa Garrison, whose career covering tennis nearly mirrors Williams’. More than 50 tournaments and 20 years later, Garrison says she’s felt Serena’s impact personally.
“It’s been really cool to see not only her being an advocate for women and women’s sports, but also, as far as what expectations put on women, or how we’re supposed to see ourselves, and for me to see her not accepting anything less than what she wants and what she needs and what she is going after, and to go after things so unapologetically, to be fierce, and to let your emotions out and for it to be like perfectly okay and acceptable, it’s inspiring. That’s what women are supposed to be able to do.”
For Garrison, Stier and colleague Matthew Stockman, the visual feast that comes with covering Serena has been a bit like Thanksgiving mixed with a dash of Christmas. From her glam appearance and her barrier-pushing on-court fashion to the parade of famous faces in the stands, covering Williams’ career has morphed into a documenting the life and impact of a true icon.
“She brought all these people together and expanded the whole fan base of tennis, you know?” said Stockman, who’s also spent more than 20 years covering Williams. “These are fans that came to the game because of her. … She brought them to the game, she brought them in the gates, and opened up tennis – and especially the women’s game – to a much broader audience.”
Her impact is palpable this week in New York, where the Getty Images team arrived prior to Wednesday in order to capture every practice session leading up to Williams’ first-round match. While the team is maxed out at eight photographers at the tournament, Getty Images will place a majority of photographers on her matches, knowing that every moment holds huge significance.
“I think it’s going to make it obviously pretty stressful for all of us, because we want to be able to cover this moment in the most comprehensive and the best way possible,” said Stier. “We’re going to have so many people there, so we are going to be able to get that done. But I think with anything that’s never happened before — obviously, athletes have retired before, but Serena has never retired before — so we don’t know how it’s all going to unfold and how it will play out, but I do think that it will make covering this tournament incredibly memorable.”
