The tennis star talks about swearing on court, dancing for Beyoncé and why she’s criticised for being both ‘too masculine’ and ‘too sexy’
There are so many sides to Serena Williams. Slick and powerful in heels and leotard, she dances, squats and bounces beside Beyoncé in the video for Sorry. She has been lauded by Claudia Rankine, whose award-winning, book-length poem Citizen last year depicted Williams “as hemmed in as any other black body thrown against our American background”. She is the world’s top-earning female athlete. And arguably more than any of her contemporaries, her body has been the focus, the point of intersection, of so many arguments about femininity, power and race that it would almost be possible to overlook the tennis.
But the tennis, of course, is unforgettable. Williams has won 21 grand slams. One more – next week at Wimbledon, say – would bring her level with Steffi Graf’s total, and only two short of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24. Williams has been playing since she was three. In September, she turns 35. If she stays fit, if the strength holds, if she keeps winning, if young rivals prosper temperately, maybe she can hurl herself through the narrowing gap of time to leave a new number in the record books. But meanwhile, she is singing karaoke at a pre-tournament party. When a TV interviewer points out that a strap of her crop top has slipped, she gives her shoulder a brief glance. “Yeah,” she says. “I know.” Through everything, she is a self-stylist.
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