Tuesday, March 17, 2004
A SERENA SIGHTING – OR AT LEAST A HEARING

Where has she gone and when’s she coming back? It was supposed to be eight weeks, but the absence of Serena Williams from the world that she ruled has stretched to eight months.

“I never thought I’d ever be using the word ‘comeback,’ but I guess that’s what I’m doing,” she is saying over the phone from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Tuesday. “The comeback starts next week” – at Key Biscayne, Fla., where she is the incumbent, the 2002-2003 champ of the Nasdaq-100 Open.

Little Sister Serena, foremost among the missing (injured) persons lately, diminishing the buzz of the women’s tennis tour, last struck a fuzzy yellow ball meaningfully July 6, 2003, a shot that Big Sister Venus couldn’t deal with, thus concluding Serena’s second Wimbledon championship.

Then knee surgery intervened, removing her from defense of her US Open title, and rehab and recovery have been much longer than expected.

“I was back on the court in November, working hard again, planning on going to the Australian Open in January. But I consulted a lot of doctors, and they all said it would be risky on those courts” – the notoriously sticky slabs of Melbourne Park. “Then I was ready to play Doha” [the mideast Qatar Open, March 1], “and I got very sick. Couldn’t go.

“So now, at last, it’s Key Biscayne, and,” her voice rises, “I’m very hungry. Hungry to play, to have the fun time. It’s been painful watching and not playing. Hard to put in the time, the work I need to get back in shape, but not play. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from tennis, and it will take adjustment.

“I don’t like that number beside my name.” [No. 7 in the rankings, a slide, due to inactivity, from No. 1 that Serena occupied 57 weeks, from July 8 2002 to Aug. 10, 2003.] “I’m very confident I can get it back. I’m a competitor.”

Serena says that she welcomed the break in the action – “a relief at first. I had more time for myself, my acting career and fashion designing. But it got old. I realized my true love was tennis.”

That will come as a surprise to some, who speculated that she would drift away from tennis, having been seduced by Hollywood and other distractions after ascending the pinnacle of her sport, and accumulating substantial wealth.

But her repeated declarations of being crazy about the game, and missing it madly, will reassure Serena’s innumerable loyalists, and the custodians of the tournament game which she and Big Sister Venus changed, sent in an upward direction and dominated.

“I haven’t done enough in my career yet. I don’t stand back,” she says, “and look at what I’ve accomplished. There have been a lot of good things, but not enough.”

Surely both she, 22, and Venus, 23, holding six and four singles majors respectively, haven’t yet dug deeply into their vast potential. Venus, who is scheduled to reappear at Key Biscayne, too, has had her physical problems as well, at first badly strained abdominal muscles.

Serena says, “I’ve been bothered by Venus’s troubles. She’s had bad luck. Twisted an ankle at the Australian, which didn’t help.” Venus also vanished into recovery mode after Wimbledon, missing for six months. The difficulties that Serena could encounter after a long layoff befell Venus. She played badly at the Australian, losing to No. 30 Lisa Raymond in the third round, and shortly thereafter pulled out of Tokyo with a leg injury.

Acting has been “exciting,” Serena says. She’s had TV parts on “Law and Order” and “The Division,” done a voice-over for a kids cartoon called “Sponge Bob,” and hopes she’ll be well regarded for her acting ability, not just as a celebrity athlete walk-on.

Ex-No. 1 Lindsay Davenport , currently No. 4 and a quarter-finalist here in the Pacific Life Open, says, “We all miss her a lot.” Lindsay, an e-mail pal of Serena’s, feels that her knee injury was “very serious, or how major the surgery was. I don’t tyhink anybody knew in August how bad it was. Eight months isn’t really too long. My knee surgery kept me out seven months. Venus has had a lot of problems. And I’m sure that losing their sister didn’t help them at all. I think it’s a huge factor.”

Serena confirms that the murder of Yetunde Williams last Sept. 14, has made it “a very tough time for the family. We all talk together daily, wherever we are. I learned there are more important things than tennis.

“I have three kids now. I feel like her kids are my kids and I treat them that way. All these things that have happened have taught me to embrace my opportunities. I’ve been blessed. I’m looking forward to the Olympics. There’s nothing like that gold medal” [she won in 2000 alongside Venus in doubles] “and I want to play Fed Cup. I would love to go to Slovenia” [first round, April 24-25]. “I’ve been talking to Zina about it,” she refers to new US captain, Zina Garrison.

She’s anxious to show off her new line of tennis toggery for her new $ 60 million angel, Nike, saying that the famous/infamous cat suit of 2002 is history.

“I have to play.” She doesn’t say whether the contract requires her to flap a racket in the big league, inspiring her as much as her fondness for the fray.

“My first match will be like starting all over again.” It will happen either a week from Friday or Saturday.

“I can’t wait.” Either can the game called tennis that Serena ruled and graced so brilliantly.

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