Serena Williams’ comeback heralds a phase in the sport where fame trumps athletic ability

You no longer need to be good at a sport to become a professional. Branding is what needs to be met to be elite.

When she mattered, Serena Williams was better than anyone else in both aspects. Can you think of another professional who was just as good and definitely the type? Williams pioneered the push-pull personality that has since been imitated by some of the most talked about modern athletes. You could never tell if she was being flirtatious or threatening. The two looked and sounded the same.

One guesses that Williams thought he could transition that into retirement. She would be not just the most glamorous tennis player in the world, but the most interesting sports-adjacent entrepreneur/philanthropist.

She made one miscalculation. There is no charitable ESPN. Once you drop your racket, you’re just another hack to push numbers up on a spreadsheet and everyone forgets about you.

That’s why people wince when they see Jeff Bezos wearing the rayon shirts sewn directly to his body, which he likes to wear while on vacation. You can’t get stupidly rich doing something cool that no one cares about. It’s either.

So Williams crawled back to tennis. This is not tennis tennis. Tennis in quotes. Williams, 44, is expected to make a soft return to doubles as a WTA wildcard player within a week.

She is partnered with 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko. Williams can serve as president and the child can run the operation.

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No one cares about doubles, so no one cares whether Williams wins or loses. The only goal here is to get the beachhead back to celebrity.

This is the next stage of the sport. Athletes are known for being famous, not for being athletic.

Boxing is already filled with excitement for these people. The beauty of that is that you don’t have to be good at it. All you need to do is be better than the person currently trying to crack your skull. Why risk your life against dangerous 20-somethings when you can make a lot of money hanging out in the ring with steroid-using YouTubers?

It doesn’t work in all sports. It’s hard to imagine an influencer quarterback without imagining a hearse on the field. But for most sports, lowering the bar a little gives enough room for gym-fit enthusiasts to keep going.

Currently, French Open stars are protesting by limiting their post-match press conferences to 15 minutes, the proportion of the Grand Slam’s revenue that the players claim they make up.

My question is, could one of them say something interesting enough to take 15 minutes to say? Maybe if they convince Fran Lebowitz to join them on tour, this will feel like a punishment.

It makes you think. What if the interview was interesting? What if the world of tennis wasn’t filled with celebrities who don’t make enough money? Instead of complaining about having enough money, what if we could replace them with people who do? This is just me and you talking here, but do we have a chance of getting Zendaya to play at Wimbledon?

She made a movie about tennis. That must mean she can swing a racket in anger. She’s not going to win anything, but she’s also not going to win a qualifier from Uzbekistan that no one has ever heard of.

If middle-aged Serena Williams, who hasn’t played any elite football in four years, is good enough to catch a pass, why not a 20-something Hollywood star who plays on the weekends?

Eventually someone will come up with this idea and it will work, although it’s embarrassing to witness. Please really work.

If you can pay to ride in a Formula 1 car that poses a serious risk of death, how long will it take for someone with enough TikTok followers to make it onto a major league roster? The worst that could happen would be to get cigarette juice on your stretchy pants.

Another French Open moment – ​​Naomi Osaka’s first round match against Germany’s Laura Siegemund. Osaka showed up wearing a gold-flake ball gown with a train, but had to take it off on court.

Afterwards, Siegmund blurted out, “I came to play tennis, not a fashion show.”

No, no, no. That’s a major misunderstanding of what you do for a living. If Sigmund wants to “play” tennis, there are probably plenty of great public courts near her house.

She’s at Roland Garros to sell things: tickets, TV packages, bottled water and, of course, clothing. Don’t get mad at Osaka because she’s better than you.

Osaka, too, will probably never have another significant victory. But as she slowly descended into the second half of her career, she came to embrace her purpose. She may play sports, but she’s involved in shmatta business.

Want to make millions of dollars? This is the tradeoff. I have yet to hear of a top athlete who remains an unsponsored purist. So I think they’re accepting their new job description, even if they do some Sigmund-esque grumbling from time to time.

Personal branding – this is the real competition. Who gets the attention and who knows how to monetize it?

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The goal is not the number of wins or wins. Tiger Woods and Tom Brady. It’s a brand that will live on beyond the days of its players. It’s fame divorced from performance.

Williams thought he had gotten there, but he wasn’t. So now she’s going back to her main source and immersing herself in the healing waters of marketing. Everyone is rooting for her as if they owe her something, which will smooth the path for the next mediocre aspirant. Eventually, dignity will no longer be considered.

The shift from meritocracy to something closer to athletic dictatorship is neither good nor bad. It’s inevitable. When sports economics becomes divorced from business realities, the best-on-best ideal is bound to become an anachronism. Legalized gambling was a death knell.

Professional leagues and tournaments were established to host games. They don’t do that anymore. Now they exist to increase revenue as much as possible. The person most likely to do it for them will be the star of the show.