All Good Things Must Come To An End.—Geoffrey Chaucer
Tennis fans across the globe are having to endure the tragedy of watching the slow fade of what will forever be hailed as The Golden Age of Tennis.
With Serena Williams being the first GOAT to retire, even the most vehemently opposed fans to her courtside manners shed involuntary tears of disbelief. Her daughter Olympia donning her Auntie-like and Mama-like beaded braids for what would be THE last match, this little charmer gave the world collective goosebumps to see a young Venurena in living color.
Just when fans thought they could not take another shock to the 20-year crutch of beholding the greatest tennis of all times, The Swiss Maestro Roger Federer took his final bow. Even stoic Mirka, the wife known as a solid tower of Fed strength, cracked. Federer’s two sets of twins met their father on the court where he hugged them and sobbed while telling them Daddy’s okay. “I am so happy. I am not sad, okay?” Ugly-crying in the background of this scene, was the champion who had played Roger more fiercely than anyone, long-time rival and friend Rafa Nadal. The other Laver Cup players stood there lending support, dumbfounded.
The saying that all good things must come to an end, made famous in the 1300s by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, was about a tragic ending to a love story. If anything could be said about the last 20 years of professional tennis, it would be the enduring love between its champions and a global fan base. Even antagonists like Djokovic, Medvedev and lukewarm likable Murray have had their moments penetrating the hearts of the people. To put this phenomenon into perspective, let’s apply a gridiron filter.
Each year, a chosen American city is host to one of sports’ most powerful advertising platforms. Fans spend the autumn months following their favorite teams, with the culmination of it all leading them to a bowl of Doritos and queso while judging commercials that costs mega millions. By the time next year rolls around, many of the game’s most rabid fans have to conduct an online search to remember who was even participating in the Super Bowl, much less who was crowned as champion. Though still at the heart of Americana, players, teams, and coaches come and go in American football, while the rest of the world is generally oblivious.
Tennis is an international sport that has no age limit, integrates the languages and cultures of the world, and curtsies its champions before kings and queens. It allows fans to get to know the idiosyncrasies of players over extended periods of time. For instance, there is a protective fan loyalty for Rafa Nadal’s wedgie picking that brings out fangs when a critical newbie comes onto the digital scene to unknowingly criticize why he does not buy some better shorts. They have no idea that it’s not even about the shorts. Mainly, because they have not hung around long enough to know that he also has a set place for his water bottles, too. For those who have raised an entire family while following the tour, we get it.
If all good things must come to an end, perhaps the best question of all was posed by author Charles M. Schulz’s fictional character Charlie Brown: “When do the good things start?”
It is a little known fact that the beginning of The Golden Age of Tennis started with an all but forgotten player Robin Söderling who climbed to a ranking of 4th in the world after not only beating, but antagonizing, Federer and Nadal in the beginning of their careers. One of the only players who incited rare public anger from otherwise collected champions was thwarted by health issues that caused him to fade into a tennis history that is scarcely recalled. But without Söderling, there would be no Nadal and Federer as we know them today. He was once the catfish to their cod tank.
Truly, The Golden Age of Tennis is departing from us. Tennis fans everywhere are hopeful that star athletes like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner will carve unforeseen paths to a new legendary era. As for a replacement for Serena, fans are left with lackluster performances that are inconsistent among the women on tour. Most people have come to believe there will never be another who can get relatively close to what she has meant to tennis. No other woman in history has won a major while with child and she did it without dropping a single set. Departing from the game for which she has become known, Serena took her power back and made it clear that her life was to be about more than tennis. She, after all, is a woman who wants to be a Mom and wife above anything else.
This is the final reality for frenzied fans. These players we love and expect to see season in and season out, are humans after all. We will never see another moment like this in a lifetime. Serena has left us to be a serial entrepreneur and Mom. Roger, the finest gentleman tennis has ever known, has succumbed to his own humanity as he exited, returning to his mother’s hug. We will learn to see him as a son, a husband, a father, and just a man with a life to live.
The tennis story takes a new unknown turn for us all as we await the inevitable painful goodbye of GOAT Rafa Nadal. Indeed, if all good things must come to an end, we are already stealing a peek into his new beginning with the birth of his son and namesake, little Rafael Nadal Perelló. Meanwhile, he has no plans to retire, scheduling matches into 2023. The Golden Age of Tennis may be hanging by a golden Mallorcan thread, but nevertheless, it lives!
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