Bill Simons
Serena is coming! Serena is coming!
All of tennis has heard the alert. Word is out that Williams may be poised for a comeback.
Never mind that she’s been retired since the 2022 US Open, that she has two daughters and more business interests than your local equity billionaire. On the Today show in late January she repeatedly refused to deny a comeback. And Alycia Parks, the No. 77 in the world, who practiced with her on February 2, said, “She’s in great shape. So I think she would kill it on tour.”
Of course, Serena loves to stir the milkshake. Last August, she popped up out of nowhere and gave an induction speech at the International Tennis Hall of Fame for her arch rival, Maria Sharapova.
Last October, Serena signed up for the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s drug protocol, a requirement for tour play. On February 22, she becomes eligible to compete. She could enter the low-profile ATX Austin Open, where Venus is already scheduled to play singles, and doubles – with a partner who hasn’t yet been designated.
Serena could also appear in early March at Indian Wells, which she once boycotted for 14 years, then at the Miami Open, near her Florida home, or the Charleston Open.
Williams is not only the queen of the courts; she is a crown princess of comebacks.
Her career has been punctuated by interruptions that would have derailed many. Early on, she missed significant time after stepping on a glass while barefoot in a Munich bar, an accident that required surgery and sidelined her for months. After winning Wimbledon in 2010, Williams was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism, underwent multiple surgeries, and survived a life-threatening crisis.
Her comeback was uneven at first, as she suffered a shock first-round loss at the 2012 French Open to Virginie Razzano. But then she roared back, winning four of the next six majors. Her final comeback came after she’d endured severe medical complications following childbirth. Though she didn’t win another Slam, she returned to the highest level.
But Serena isn’t the only Williams to have overcome. Venus soldiered through Sjogren’s Syndrome, and in 2017 returned to the top.
Then again, let’s be real – tennis wouldn’t be tennis without comebacks. They come with the territory. To come back, you need grit, resolve, resilience, and what coach Kamau Murray called “bounce-back-ability.” In recent years, Stan Wawrinka, Bob Bryan, and Andy Murray are among those who have overcome daunting setbacks.
Few players had more bounce-back-ability than Lisa Raymond. The Floridian was down 0-6, 0-5, 0-30 to Lubomira Kuhajcova and thought to herself, “Great! I’ve got her just where I want her!” before staging an epic comeback.
Comebacks often have an existential twist – “Who am I if I don’t play?” After a 20-month retirement, Belgian Justine Henin confided, “I realized I need to move, I need to be free, I need to have adrenalin in my life. I’m still not ready to calm down and have a normal life.”
Monica Seles, who was stabbed in the back in 1993, felt unabashed glee as she battled her way to the 1995 US Open final. On a whim, she went shopping for hats at Barney’s. “No one was around,” she recalled. “Frank Sinatra was playing on the loudspeakers. I felt like Audrey Hepburn.”
After a stunning win over Robby Ginepri in Rome, Spaniard Felix Mantilla joked that he began to come back when he “saw a vision of the Virgin Mary.”
The 2001 return of Jennifer Capriati, who won the Australian and French Opens after missing two seasons due to drug use and personal problems, also drew biblical references. A Dutch writer claimed, “Her comeback was the best since Lazarus.” The London Times contended that, after Muhammad Ali, Capriati’s was the second greatest in sports history.
After an eleven-month absence due to knee surgery, Federer unleashed powerful backhands in the 2017 Australian Open final to beat Nadal. Then in 2018, the 38-year-old crafted two Houdini-like comebacks, saving seven match points against Tennys Sandgren and storming past John Millman.
But Nadal’s comebacks have been far mightier. He missed 17 Grand Slams due to injuries. Was Rafa great because he pushed his body relentlessly – or might he have been even greater had he just been a tad gentler? Then again, that’s against his religion.
On land or sea, tennis players have had to cope with almost every curveball imaginable. Dick Williams and Karl Behr leaped off the sinking Titanic and later entered the Hall of Fame. Don Budge returned after serving in World War II. Rod Laver came back after being banned for professionalism. Following an eleven-year absence due to injuries and a car wreck, Tracy Austin reemerged.
The often impassive Pete Sampras delivered a highly charged comeback win over Jim Courier at the 1995 Australian Open. After breaking down when a fan shouted, “Win it for your coach!” – a reference to the dying Tim Gullikson – Sampras gathered himself and prevailed in what Fred Stolle called the finest match he’d ever seen.
Mardy Fish fought anxiety and a racing heart to make a brief, brave return. Swiss Timea Bacsinszky overcame paternal abuse. She confided, “As a young girl, you can never go against the power of a dad. You have no money – nothing.” For her, tennis became a mode of defiance as well as an escape. American Corina Morariu returned after battling leukemia. Kim Clijsters, a mother of two, staged seven comebacks.
Despite seven surgeries, Juan Martín del Potro offered inspiring returns before his unhappy fate was sealed. Brian Baker, who endured 15 surgeries, admitted, “I’m tired of being the comeback kid.”
As for comeback quips, few topped Andy Roddick. When Agassi asked, “Let’s see what you got, big boy,” Roddick replied, “Hair!”
Comebacks have not always been applauded. Connors once scoffed at Agassi’s attempt to return at 29 – never mind that Connors himself had slipped to No. 174 before staging his own late-career revival at 39.
And comebacks don’t always work. Bjorn Borg, who once redefined speed, staged ill-fated returns years after retiring at just 26. Michael Mewshaw described Borg as “unshaven, his long hair lank and dirty, wearing a rumpled velour warm-up.” Curry Kirkpatrick wrote that Borg’s return became “a tragicomic carnival. A phrase came to French lips: La mer s’est élevée avec les pleurs. The sea has risen with tears.”
To recapture their bliss, players have run up mountains, used panther tails, and played in braces and boots. To Agassi, comebacks are “symbolic of the battle we all go through, a testament to how strong the human spirit is.”
This is why the murmur around Serena now feels familiar and perhaps fitting. Whether she actually plays or not, her possible return already belongs at the edge of this storied tradition.
Serena’s legacy was sealed long ago. But tennis comebacks are not only about results. They’re about refusal – refusing finality, disappearance, and the idea that time or expectations get the last word.
Tennis itself staged the ultimate comeback after Covid in 2021. Jon Wertheim noted, “If microbes have the advantage to create ruptures in the lives of billions, we humans have our own powers – our intelligence, empathy and our ability to cooperate.”
When it comes to theatrical returns, nothing tops Connors’ over-the-top, crotch-grabbing, operatic run to the 1991 US Open semis, which remains a treasure for those who dream of immortality.
While writer Bruce Jenkins contended that Jimmy’s run was “the most rollicking, tempestuous, unforgettable episode in Grand Slam history,” Robert Lipsyte focused on Connors’ shameless delight, saying, “Jimmy reminds us all how much we have given up by growing up. Lucky Jimmy. If only we could once again stop the party…make all the grownups applaud our naughty words, dance through the hors d’oeuvres, posture and preen and be a terrible two, the only time when a human being will be loved for conquering the world while crying.”
But in the end, to capture the grit of sports comebacks, we call on LeBron James, who suggested, “We’ve all been underestimated and counted out…In those moments, we felt like it was over. But it’s when we’re given no chance that we did what no one thought we could, not even ourselves…We found a way. If we’ve learned anything from sports, it’s that no matter how far down we may be, we are never too far down to come back.”