{"id":682744,"date":"2026-06-03T23:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682744\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:22:17","slug":"serena-williams-is-back-and-still-as-relevant-as-ever-on-and-off-the-tennis-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682744\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams is back and still as relevant as ever \u2014 on and off the tennis court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serena Williams\u2019 announcement Monday<\/a> that she would return to professional tennis nearly four years after her last match felt Jordan-esque.<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s Tennis Association\u2019s website displayed a graphic that included only three words: \u201cSerena is back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Williams heralded the return by posting a 17-second Nike ad on her social media accounts. In the video, she walks over to her phone, which is blowing up with notifications and calls. A tagline that reads \u201cGuess everybody heard the news\u201d appears on-screen before the Williams and Nike logos emerge in tandem.<\/p>\n

Her accolades, including 23<\/a> Grand Slam singles titles, speak for themselves. She\u2019s the only player who has won the Career Golden Slam<\/a>, winning all four majors and Olympic gold, in singles and doubles, and she was the sport\u2019s dominant force for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

In the announcement, Williams said she has accepted a wild-card invitation to play doubles in the HSBC Championships, scheduled June 8-14 at The Queen\u2019s Club in London.<\/p>\n

Responses to her comeback have ranged from thoughts on how fitting it is that she will play her first event at The Queen\u2019s Club to jokes that her return is a recession indicator. Respectfully, it is a relevance indicator. So much has changed during Williams\u2019 time away from the game, and yet much has remained the same.<\/p>\n

A singular moment reflects her modernity: the catsuit she wore at Flushing Meadows in 2002. It was a statement of beauty and Blackness.<\/p>\n

Related StorySerena needs to bring back \u2018catsuit tennis\u2019 \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

If the conversation around Naomi Osaka\u2019s outfits<\/a> at this year\u2019s French Open is any indication, folks still don\u2019t know what to do with a fashionable, forward-thinking Black woman.<\/p>\n

After Osaka wore a flashy \u2018fit that looked like the Eiffel Tower at night<\/a>, her first-round opponent, Laura Siegemund, expressed a critique to TNT Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show. \u2026 I find something else problematic,\u201d Siegemund said. \u201cIn our sport, at every tournament they count every second, right up until you\u2019ve unpacked your water bottle. But she can have a minute and a half to change. \u2026 That\u2019s the only thing regarding the rules that I don\u2019t think is OK and where, once again, bigger names are treated differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Problematic is the right word, especially considering a history<\/a> of weaponizing fashion to take shots at the Williams family. Even before Venus and Serena Williams\u2019 love for fashion was suggested to be a deterrent to their tennis aspirations, their braids and beads were criticized. Venus Wiliams was even penalized<\/a> for them in the 1999 Australian Open.<\/p>\n

This is part of what makes the Williams sisters legendary. Their relevance and cultural individuality became resistance<\/a> in a buttoned-up<\/a> tennis world that prioritized respectability and its interpretation of \u201cpurity.\u201d Serena Williams\u2019 catsuit moments<\/a> not only asserted her as a Black, full-figured woman, but in later incarnations, as a mother and champion.<\/p>\n

Related StoryNaomi Osaka is on a mission and climbing back. Tennis missed her. \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Osaka, who has openly dealt with depression and anxiety, said her clothes speak for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like fashion \u2014 for me, I tell people, I don\u2019t talk a lot, so that way I can talk through my clothes,\u201d she said<\/a> at the French Open. \u201cThat means I can be as loud with colors or patterns or fabric as I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serena Williams\u2019 relevance also looks like reverence from players such as Coco Gauff and Taylor Townsend, and yet her return puts her in position to again become more of an on-court peer of theirs rather than a bygone legend. When a then-15-year-old Gauff entered our cultural awareness in 2019<\/a> with her win at Wimbledon over Venus Williams, it wasn\u2019t as much a changing of the guard as it was a celebration of the present and the future.<\/p>\n

That spirit still exists, especially when juxtaposing Serena Williams\u2019 return with a photo<\/a> Osaka, Townsend, Gauff and other Black players took at a dinner<\/a> Osaka and Townsend organized ahead of the French Open last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, there weren\u2019t a lot of tennis players I could look up to that looked like me,\u201d Osaka wrote in a post on her Instagram account. \u201cBeing a minority in a sport like tennis is very isolating, but the positive is that you keep tabs on everyone that \u2026 being blunt, is Black. There\u2019s a fellowship, a camaraderie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townsend also posted about the dinner on her Instagram account<\/a>. In a comment on the post, Katrina Adams<\/a>, the first Black president of the U.S. Tennis Association and a former tennis professional, said cultural pride and togetherness is a time-honored tradition for Black tennis players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our era in the 80\u2019s\/90\u2019s, we hosted \u2018Soul Food\u2019 Sunday on the middle Sunday of Wimbledon, when there was no play,\u201d Adams wrote<\/a>. \u201cAll the Black players got together, cooked, ate and enjoyed each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The throughline between Serena Williams\u2019 presence and burgeoning Blackness is that it always transcended the sport. Last week, the caretakers of Roland-Garros celebrated Althea Gibson, who 70 years ago became the first person of color to win a Grand Slam tournament. A voiceover<\/a> from tennis legend Billie Jean King praised Gibson\u2019s milestone and how it influenced Serena Williams and many others. <\/p>\n

However, King also expressed the uncomfortable truth associated with that milestone: \u201cIf she\u2019d been white, she definitely would\u2019ve had a different experience every day of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serena Williams is in a space usually reserved for athletes who are far removed from their powers, a place of prominence and universal appeal. She\u2019s a minority owner in various franchises, including joining the ownership group<\/a> of the WNBA\u2019s Toronto Tempo in March 2025. Even with the buzz around her and with her hand in multiple business ventures, she sees her upcoming play as a chance to return to a familiar refuge.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueen\u2019s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,\u201d Williams said in a statement<\/a> from the tournament. \u201cGrass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I\u2019m excited to be back competing on one of the sport\u2019s most iconic stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her return is akin to the most recent Michael movie. It allows us to enjoy the classics, whether that comes from her major wins or her fashion sense. If she can conjure up some tennis magic, it could elevate her from being a peer to being feared, proof that a queen\u2019s reign endures for generations.<\/p>\n

Ken J. Makin is a freelance writer and the host of the Makin\u2019 A Difference podcast. Before and after commentating, he\u2019s thinking about his wife and his sons.<\/p>\n

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