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What is the meaning of Serena Williams?

Is it that she's a sister? Photo Instagram Is it that she’s always been a winner? What tennis player does 11-year-old Serena want to be like? "Well, I'd like other people to be like me." (Jump to 1:17.

Is it that she's a sister?

serena williams

                   Photo Instagram

Is it that she’s always been a winner? 

What tennis player does 11-year-old Serena want to be like? "Well, I'd like other people to be like me." 

(Jump to 1:17.)

Is it something we haven’t seen yet?  

Her once upon a time is still unfolding, the pages furiously written by the best tennis player we’ve ever seen. This modern age fairy tale won’t end when Williams wins her 22nd Grand Slam title, passing Steffi Graf’s benchmark while simultaneously becoming one of a handful of singles and doubles players to win four Grand Slam tournaments – the Australian and French opens, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open – in a calendar year.

We think we know the ending. Maybe Williams doesn’t win the U.S. Open this weekend. Maybe she repeats the feat next season. It's sports. It's fun because it's unpredictable. 

It many ways, it doesn’t matter.

The meaning of Serena Williams will be understood for more than her 21 championships (so far) (second-best of all time, male or female) and $72 million in career earnings (so far) (third-most of all time, male and female).

She is more than the neighbourhood that she came from, more than her faith and family, more than her skin and muscles. She is all those things and is still more than a tennis superstar, too. Williams could be more even still.

Sports legend? Yes.

Legendary? Let’s see how far she takes it.

She already runs children’s tennis camps and is involved in charitable organizations like the Beyond the Boroughs National Scholarship Fund, the Calibre Foundation, which supports victims of gun violence, and the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit legal resource for families in poverty that have been denied fair representation. Through hern namesake charity, she’s supported education in rural Uganda and Kenya (a school is named for her). In 2011 she was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

She and her sister advocated for equal prize money for men and women, a struggle that continues despite considerable success in tennis. But she can do more, go further, make greater changes. She has the examples of Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King. Serena Williams will face the considerable decision choosing the causes that deserve her attention. She certainly has mine, and I’m looking for her to lead. Who can say what it will be, but the meaning of Serena Williams can’t yet be measured.

This question was put to me yesterday by Kirk LaPointe. We were taping a segment for a sports panel that will air during his morning show on Roundhouse Radio. LaPointe is a great interviewer, and I wouldn't miss the essays he reads on air. 

The radio station launches in October at 98.3 on the FM dial.