A riveting, revealing portrait of tennis champion and global icon Serena Williams that combines biography, cultural criticism, and sports writing to offer âa deep, satisfying meditationâ (The New York Times) on the most consequential athlete of her time.
There has never been an athlete like Serena Williams. She has dominated womenâs tennis for two decades, changed the way the game is played, andâby inspiring Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, and othersâchanged, too, the racial makeup of the pro game. But Williamsâs influence has not been confined to the tennis court. As a powerful Black woman who struggled to achieve and sustain success, she has emerged as a cultural icon, figuring in conversations about body image, working mothers, and more.
Seeing Serena chronicles Williamsâs return to tennis after giving birth to her daughterâfrom her controversial 2018 US Open final against Naomi Osaka through a 2020 season that unfolded against a backdrop of a pandemic and protests over the killing of Black men and women by the police. Gerald Marzorati, who writes about tennis for The New Yorker, travels to Wimbledon and to Compton, California, where Serena and her sister Venus learned to play. He talks with former womenâs tennis greats, sports and cultural commentatorsâand Serena herself. He observes Williams from courtside, on the red carpet, in fashion magazines, on social media. He sees her and writes about her prismaticallyâreflecting on her many, many facets.
The result is an âenlighteningâŠkeen analysisâ (The Washington Post) and energetic narrative that illuminates Serenaâs singular status as the greatest womenâs tennis player of all time and a Black woman with a global presence like no other.