Serena Williams Faces Another Challenge

Serena Williams is the greatest female tennis player of all time, but that hardly captures her impact. Even calling her one of the most dominant athletes in history feels confining. She and her sister Venus represent one of the most improbable success stories in American history. But that also doesn’t capture the implausibility of two little Black girls from Compton, California, rising to become the top tennis players in the world.

So if her first-round U.S. Open match with Danka Kovinic tonight is indeed her last match ever at the Open (or if this is her last tournament appearance, period) Williams can retire knowing that words cannot fully describe what she’s meant in his own image. Williams has done the same for tennis. An entire generation of women witnessed Williams unapologetically transforming everything within her reach.