SEEING SERENA

A year spent watching Serena Williams play tennis yields some provocative insights.

In his previous book, Late to the Ball, Marzorati, a former editor for the New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker, detailed his own attempts to become a competitive tennis player at the age of 60. In 2019, he followed Williams, who was attempting to make a comeback at the age of 37, two years after the birth of her daughter, by winning at least one Grand Slam tournament, thereby tying or exceeding the number of Grand Slam titles held by Australian Margaret Court. Though this is not an authorized biography—Marzorati spoke to Williams only as a typical member of the sports press—the author takes advantage of his detached position to meditate, objectively but not without compassion, on Williams as not just a tennis player, but a cultural figure and human being as well. The narrative moves chronologically, from the Australian Open in January through the other three Grand Slam tournaments, with stops along the way in Miami, Rome, and Indian Wells in California. The author shifts smoothly among observations of Williams' often less-than-impressive performances during the year, stories of her earlier life, memories of other matches he had seen her play over the years, and nuanced reflections on his subject matter—e.g., because she started tennis so young, Williams was “a personality before she could reasonably be expected to be a person.” Marzorati doesn’t laser-focus on Williams; he also glances around to take in players like Coco Gauff, who began her career when she was even younger than Williams and whose changing style of play the author discusses. Readers who know more about Williams than her tennis career will learn about the game's intricacies while those already familiar with the game will benefit from subtler details.

A scrupulous examination of the career twilight of “the most consequential athlete of her time.”