This year marks the 50th anniversary of TENNIS Magazine's founding in 1965. To commemorate the occasion, we'll look back each Thursday at one of the 50 moments that have defined the last half-century in our sport.
By 2014, TENNIS Magazine had been covering the sport for 50 years. That fall, though, rather than just writing its history, it may have played a small part in making it.
The tale begins in 2006, when the publisher of TENNIS, Chris Evert, used the pages of the magazine to write an open letter of concern to Serena Williams.
“I’ve been thinking about your career,” Evert began, “and something is troubling me. I appreciate that becoming a well-rounded person is important, as you’ve made that desire very clear. Still, the question lingers—do you ever consider your place in history?”
A glove had been thrown down from one champion to another. Evert, the best American player of her era, had watched Williams, the best American player of hers, appear to lose her focus in what should have been the prime of her career. By ’06, Serena, after rocketing to No. 1 in the early years of the decade, had won just one major in three seasons.
Challenge accepted. Eight years later, as she stood next to Evert on the trophy stand at the U.S. Open, Serena had a definitive answer to Chris’s question. Did she care about her place in tennis history? The answer was a resounding yes.
On that September day in 2014, Williams took her place between two embodiments of the game’s past, Evert and her great rival Martina Navratilova. A few minutes earlier, Serena had joined them on the list of all-time Grand Slam champions by winning her 18th Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set. The victory had also put the capstone on a run of domination that had rarely been seen since, well, the days of Chris and Martina. Even more remarkable was the fact that Serena had done it all after turning 30 years old.