“No question the feeling in the locker room is that [Serena Williams is] vulnerable, she’s beatable,” Lindsay Davenport, a former No 1, told BBC 12 months ago as the reigning world No 1 made a bizarre exit from Wimbledon.
Looking dazed and disorientated as she warmed up alongside elder sister Venus for their second-round doubles match against Kristina Barrois and Stefanie Voegele, Serena served an entire game of double faults before the Williams decided to concede.
Three days earlier, the world No 1 was dumped out from the singles competition by Alize Cornet, with the Frenchwoman winning their third-round match 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.
Serena had made an early exit from the French Open, as well, losing 6-2, 6-2 to Garbine Muguruza in the second round, so Davenport’s assessment was not as flawed as it seems now. But she probably would not have made that comment had she spoken to fellow American and the former men’s No 4 Brad Gilbert.
"One thing I've learnt over the years is never underestimate a Williams, ever," Gilbert, who has also coached the likes of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori, told sportinglife.com last week.
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Never, and Davenport should have known that, but she probably got a bit carried away by that blip in Serena’s form. Three months later, she received a stern riposte.
Serena, after failing to reach the quarter-final in the first three grand slams of the year, won her third successive US Open title, without dropping a set. She has since added the 2015 Australian Open and French Open to her resume, becoming the first woman since 2002/03 to win three consecutive grand slams.
Who was the last woman to achieve that feat? Serena, of course, when she won the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2002. She then added the 2003 Australian Open to bring the term “Serena Slam” into existence.
Three months shy of her 34th birthday, Serena is seven matches away from an encore. She is 21-0 since her controversial exit from Wimbledon 12 months ago, with that sordid episode a distant memory. All the talk at the All England Club this year is about the Serena Slam.
“The monkey’s on my back … I just consistently do terrible there,” said Serena, a five-time champion, who has not lived up to expectations on her last two visits to Wimbledon, losing in the fourth round in 2013 and third round last year.
This year, she will have the additional burden of the Serena Slam and also have to contend with the growing interest in a possible calendar Grand Slam. The American, then, is in an unenviable position, but as Gilbert warned, never underestimate a Williams, especially a Serena in her 30s.
Since the start of 2012, Serena has lost only 17 of her 237 matches, which gives her a glittering 92.8 winning percentage in her 30s. She has won 28 of her 67 singles titles over the past 42 months and triumphed at seven of the 14 grand slams in which she has played.
Before her 30th birthday, Serena had 13 grand slam titles from 45 attempts across 15 seasons and her winning percentage was 82.8 (496-103) in that pre-2012 period.
Serena, then, has only grown better with age and, of late, has shown a willingness to fight it out in the middle when things are not going her way. At the French Open, she clawed back after losing the opening set in four of her seven matches.
She has a 61-11 record against the give still active former No 1s, excluding her sister.
Given Serena’s newfound determination, her longevity and dominance, Chris Evert has little doubt about her place in tennis history.
“She is the greatest of all-time,” the American legend told Time magazine. “I think we want to look up to somebody larger than life, and kind of go along for the ride. We like to be in awe of somebody, it’s superhuman what they do.”
Serena has been something approaching superhuman since her 30th birthday, and if she can go on to complete the Serena Slam and then the calendar Grand Slam at the US Open, she will have earned the right to strut around in a bright red cape, emblazoned with a capital “S”.
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