S. Williams Still Is in Fine Fashion
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Tuesday, September 9, 2008
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., Sept. 8 -- With worldwide fame, more than $18 million in career winnings and nine major titles, Serena Williams hardly needs to look for reasons to feel good about herself.
But she awoke Monday with another: a No. 1 world ranking.
Williams had managed only an hour's sleep between the interviews that followed her 6-4, 7-5 victory over Jelena Jankovic, which rewarded her with a third U.S. Open title, and the flurry of appearances that followed Monday morning.
But she looked dazzling -- sporting a skintight, bright red Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress, magenta pashmina and metallic gold flats -- when she met with a small group of reporters in a private room at New York's ESPN Zone.
It was hard to believe this was the same woman who had sweated, grunted and shrieked her way through a two-hour match roughly 12 hours earlier. Williams was no longer jumping up and down like a child at Christmas but radiated a sophisticated satisfaction.
It was just past noon, and she had already posed in Times Square with the U.S. Open trophy and appeared on "Today," "Live With Regis and Kelly" and "SportsCenter."
Everyone wanted to ask about her remarkable resurgence. Just two years earlier Williams was 140th in the world, regarded as a player who had revolutionized women's tennis with her power but defaulted on her potential.
"It has definitely been a lot of ups and downs -- more downs than I care to know," said Williams, 26, asked about the wild swings of her tennis career over the last six years. "I've had lots of injuries. My ranking fell out of the top 100.
"But I had fun. I led my life. I met lots of new people. I don't regret anything."
Still, that's not to suggest that Williams intends to play out the balance of her career as she has her first 13 years.
She has learned a lot about the value of working harder off the court.
"The only way really to get back is by training hard," Williams said. "Sometimes I would go to a tournament not as prepared. It happened because maybe I was injured."
