I will provide you with the cold take first: Serena is thirty eight years recent. She has reached the finals of the four of the last six majors, generally taking part in in addition as she’s ever vie. In her U.S. Open match match, she blitzed a top-20 opponent 6-1, 6-0 in roughly the time it'll take you to scan this sentence. In her semi, she beat a prime 5 player 6-3, 6-1. In those 2 majors during which she didn't reach the semis? In one, she was rolling over a top-three foe—and declined in charge the loss on injury. within the alternative, she was taking part in on clay, her least selection surface. Let’s detain mind that, overall, she ain’t precisely embarrassing herself. something however. Yet, she could be a victim of her own success and her own aura. within the past, she’s gotten higher because the tournament progresses. We’re conversant in seeing her within the finals, discharging her duties with the cold-blooded poise of Villanelle. Seeing her lose four straight Slam finals—against four totally different opponents and failing to win one set—has been jarring. Has she choked? Depends on your definition. She’s positively projected tightness she didn’t within the previous six rounds. She’s vie otherwise, that’s as expected, surrendering early breaks of serve and seeing a decline in her stats. (Then once more, credit wherever it’s due: the player on the opposite aspect has been no slouch.) Some of this owes to the purpose we often create regarding pressure. Often, it doesn’t befall the new and naïve. It drops instead on the veterans World Health Organization grasp simply what proportion weight the occasion carries and the way rarely the opportunities return around. Bianca Andreescu, age 19, can—and did—swing freely during a match nobody expected her to win. Serena, doubly her age, bore the burden.
