Editorial | Ajla ascends, Serena moves on; Long live the queens

Ajla Tomljanovic, of Austrailia, returns a shot to Serena Williams, of the United States, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Moments after her last shot went astray, the cameras and microphones immediately turned to the breathless star.

Serena Williams had lost what may have been her final match but fell out of tennis’ top ranks only in a sense. She lives on as a champion, not just of sport but for children, women, African-Americans and humanity at large. At 40, she remains poised to turn that legacy into whatever she chooses to make of it in “evolving,” as in recent days she termed her impending departure from the courts.

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In the spotlight for what it seemed can’t possibly be the last time at the US Open, she thanked her late father, her mother, husband and other family members and friends looking on. She acknowledged that without her elder sister Venus, a champion before her and at doubles with her, there would have been no Serena.

Serena Williams, of the United States, waves to fans after losing to Ajla Tomljanovic, of Austrailia, in the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Sitting quietly off camera was Ajla Tomljanovic, a woman little known to those who watch tennis only casually and who may have tuned in just to witness Williams’ last dance under the Queens evening sky.

The 5-foot-11-inch, 29-year-old Australian by way of Zagreb, Croatia, had worked her own way up to the US Open. And at the Arthur Ashe Stadium Friday, packed to the rafters with spectators who cheered every Serena ace and line shot but kept quiet at her own, Tomljanovic’s fierce eyes tracked every massive hit by her opponent. She played one point at a time, staying strong and loose despite 115-mile-per-hour serves that blew past her and Serena’s overhead smashes to impossible corners, despite the many game points in her favor that the champion, unwilling to lie down, heart-breakingly turned back into deuces. Tomljanovic was the picture of poise and once she pulled ahead, there was no looking back.

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But her true valor came when, at last, the announcer, having given Serena her due, finally turned to the player who had won the match, had vanquished the champ and had sent her packing to the pickleball courts of BallenIsles. What did Tomljanovic do? She took the opportunity to turn the spotlight off herself and back onto Serena, thanking the many-time champ for a career that inspired, among millions of others, the self-same Tomljanovic, who recalled how as a child she’d watched Serena play, though she’d never dreamed that one day….

Serena, in her post-match thank-you’s, never acknowledged her gracious victor. Nor, it seems, has she acknowledged her own mortality. If only she’d started practicing earlier this year…, she told the announcer. And when asked if her “evolving” meant this was really it for her tennis career, she responded that, well, you never know.

Tomljanovic has not made it to the highest ranks of the tennis pantheon yet, and there was no telling how far beyond Friday’s round she would rise at the Open. But her poise, grace and victory – she beat a still-fearsome opponent, not to mention a crowd of 23,000-odd spectators – showed that she, too, has a champion’s heart. So, power to Serena for the inspiration and power to Ajla Tomljanovic for accepting the challenge and living up to it.

The Queen is evolving. Long live the Queen.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Serena WIlliams is a champion but so is Ajla Tomljanovic at US Open