For a long time, it was impossible to tell what Serena Williams wanted. Did she want to be a café society girl? Did she want to be a clothing empress? Did she want a long career playing tennis, or was the game simply a means to a more glamorous and less work intensive gig?
In her peripatetic middle years, she dressed with more purpose than she played, seemed more interested in cunning little pleats than in competition. That's over now. Williams knows what she wants, and what she wants is all of it, a clean sweep of Melbourne, Paris, London and New York.
The big purses and the little dog, the catsuits and the photo calls, are just side dressings to the tennis, the Grand Slam pursuit and the mounting totals. One testimonial to Williams' dominance has been her ability to lay the racket down for long periods, whether out of boredom or distraction, and then pick it up again at will and win. But lately she's not laying it down at all. She has won eight of her 21 major titles in the last three years since she passed the age of 30.
Whether or not Williams actually wins her 22nd major championship and accomplishes a calendar Grand Slam to equal Steffi Graf, this super heated final phase of her career has given her a certain emotional security. No one can ever accuse her of lacking commitment again. "I can sit here and say that I'm the greatest player that I've been able to be," she said last week. "I do read numbers and I do see numbers. I believe in those numbers."
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