Serena Williams has had a long, hard journey to being a champion – mostly outside the tennis court

In the 1980s and the early-to-mid 1990s, Compton, a working class suburb of Los Angeles, was associated in the popular imagination with gang violence as chronicled in rap songs. The economically depressed city, known for its homelessness, drugs, crime and gangs, was the birthplace of gangsta rap, a claim to fame that has been reiterated by pop culture representations like the 2015 movie about rap group NWA, Straight Outta Compton.

It was in this Compton that Serena Williams began her journey to becoming one of the greatest athletes of all time. Serena and sister Venus recall having to duck gunfire while practising on local courts. In some ways, that beginning is symbolic of the rest of Serena’s life and career.

Watching her claim her 22nd major title on Saturday to equal Steffi Graf’s Open Era record might deceive many into thinking that the road has been reasonably easy for someone with Serena’s abilities. In fact, few athletes have faced the kind of hurdles she has. Few have had to duck gunfire, figuratively speaking, throughout their careers like she has. Fewer still have done it with such aplomb.

Medical problems

From the very beginning, Serena Williams has been plagued by injuries and illness, the kind that might easily have ended most people’s careers. Her list of injuries might put Rafa Nadal to shame. Here’s a look at some of them:

1999 – In her breakthrough year, when Serena won her first Grand Slam at the US Open at the age of eighteen, she began to suffer from a series of health issues. She withdrew from a tournament in Hilton Head with patella tendonitis in her right knee and left the quarter finals at the German Open with a strained right elbow. She was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon with a severe case of the flu and from the season-ending championship for which she had qualified for the first time with a back injury.

2000 – That April, she left the second round of the Amelia Island tournament with a meniscus tear in her left foot. At the Paris Indoor tournament she suffered from a right knee ligament injury that may have contributed to her defeat. She was forced to retire against Martina Hingis at the Canadian Open when one of the small bones in the base of her left foot became inflamed. This injury also led to her withdrawal from the US Open.

2001 - She withdrew from the Paris Indoor tournament with fatigue and from the Scottsdale tournament with the flu. She also withdrew from Charleston, the Italian Open, and Madrid because of knee injuries.

2003 -Williams reinjured her knee during doubles play in Wimbledon and withdrew from the Los Angeles tournament, the Canadian Open, and the US Open. She underwent surgery on the quadriceps tendon in her knee that fall. But this proved to be a minor irritation compared to what happened next.

That September, Serena Williams was shooting for a TV series when she learned of the death of her half sister Yetunde Price. Yetunde, a mother of three who occasionally served as personal assistant to Venus and Serena, and a companion, had been driving on a street in Compton when she was shot. Police reports indicated Price was caught in the crossfire between two gangs. Serena stayed away from tennis for eight months following the incident. Years later, she said, “It was a real dark period in my life…I was so close to my sister.”

2004 – In the Wimbledon final where she famously lost to Maria Sharapova, she suffered an abdominal injury.

2005 – An ankle injury caused her to miss the French Open.

2006 – That year she stayed away from competition for almost six months and her ranking slipped to a lowly 139. In her autobiography, Serena confessed that she was suffering from depression and had to shut herself away for a while while she received therapy.

2007 — Williams collapsed from an acute muscle spasm in a fourth round match against Daniela Hantuchova. That year she had to retire from both the Fed Cup and the year-ending WTA Championships due to a knee injury.

2008 – Williams withdrew from three tournaments to get dental surgery and retired in the quarter-final in Rome against Alizé Cornet because of a back injury. She retired from her semi-final match against a qualifier at Stanford with a left knee injury, which also forced her out of the tournament in Los Angeles. At the Year-End Championships that year, she withdrew from her match against Dementieva, citing a stomach muscle injury.

2009 – A knee injury caused her to withdraw before her semi-final match in the Open GDF Suez. Later that year, hampered by ankle and quad injuries, Williams suffered the longest losing streak of her career.

2010 – On July 7, while in a restaurant in Munich, Serena Williams stepped on broken glass. The injury forced her to miss the rest of the year and would lead to the greatest medical scare of her life.

2011 – In February, Serena was on her way to an Oscar party when she had difficulty breathing. A visit to the hospital revealed multiple blood clots in her lungs. “I was on my death bed at one point – quite literally,” she later said in an interview. ”It got to the stage where it felt like I could hardly breathe. Some days I didn’t get out of bed at all. I just laid on a couch thinking why has this happened to me? The second surgery was tough, more mentally tough than a lot of things I’ve been through, including my sister dying.” That year, she played only six tournaments.

2012 – At the very first tournament she played in Brisbane, Williams injured her left ankle when serving for the match and was forced to withdraw. A few months later, she withdrew from her semi-final match against Li Na in Rome citing a lower back injury.

2014 – After losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open to former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, Serena admitted that she had considered withdrawing from the tournament earlier because of a back injury. Later that year she withdrew from the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open with a left thigh injury. After suffering her earlier loss at Wimbledon since 2005, to Alize Cornet, Serena was visibly disoriented in her doubles match with Venus, where she seemed to have trouble with her ball toss and movement before the pair retired. At the Wuhan Open later that year, she retired in the first set against Alizé Cornet due to a viral illness. Then, at the China Open, she retired before her quarterfinal match.

2015 – Williams withdrew from the Swedish Open and the Bank of the West Classic with an elbow injury.

Listed above are most of the medical issues and the family tragedy that together kept Williams away from tennis for so many weeks and months over her long career. What’s astounding is that despite the absences and the setbacks, some of which were crippling, Williams is today, a month before her 35th birthday, the dominant player on the women’s tour.

A black athlete in a white sport

Still, at the end of her career her injuries and even the death of her sister will likely take a back seat among the adversities she has had to face. It is fair to say that no other tennis player has had to face the barrage of attacks that she has, from fans, journalists, fellow players, and commentators.

Some of these critics, like Chris Evert, have recanted over the years or genuinely changed their mind after watching Williams herself evolve as a tennis player and a human being. But many of the racist comments, body shaming jokes, and general hostility have been recorded, in this age of social media and technology, for posterity. History will look back at the era of Serena Williams as a remarkable one that withstood this deluge.

When Serena and Venus were young girls, even as their father Richard was deliberately honing his daughters’ skills, he was also taking steps to prepare them for the road ahead, a road certain to be strewn with racist attacks. It is said that he paid children to yell out racist epithets to his daughters on the Compton practice courts to prepare them for what lay ahead. It was both wise and prescient.

In 1991, in an unconventional move, Richard Williams decided to send Serena and Venus to a Florida tennis academy rather than enter any more tournaments on the national junior circuit. His reasoning? To avoid subjecting them to racial hostility.

One of the first clear signs of that hostility came in 2003 during the French Open semi final between Serena Williams and Belgium’s Justin Henin-Hardenne. The French crowd cheered Henin and heckled Williams until she was driven to tears by the end of the match. Later, she told the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, “I think it’s bad when people start booing in between serves. Or other people egging them on by doing ridiculous things. That gets a little tough, too, you know.”

But the one incident that is most difficult to forget happened in her own country, not far from the city where she grew up. Ever since the Williams sisters began to routinely defeat their opponents, there was some speculation in the media and among other players that Richard fixed matches between the two sisters.

In 2001, at Indian Wells, Venus withdrew from her semi-final match against Serena due to knee tendinitis. The announcement of the withdrawal led some fans to suspect that the withdrawal had been orchestrated. Two days later, 19 -year-old Serena won the final against another Belgian woman Kim Clijsters. Her reward? Loud boos from the predominantly white crowd for her father and sister as they walked to their courtside seats at the beginning of the match.

The crowd also booed Serena during the match and cheered her unforced errors. Later, Richard claimed that the jeers directed at him and Venus included racial slurs. “When Venus and I were walking down the stairs to our seats, people kept calling me ‘nigger,”’ Williams was quoted as saying.”One guy said, ‘I wish it was ‘75; we’d skin you alive.’ That’s when I stopped and walked toward that way. Then I realised that [my] best bet was to handle the situation non-violently. I had trouble holding back tears. I think Indian Wells disgraced America.”

That of course was not all. Over the years, Serena has had to endure attacks against her body on social media and in person. These have come in a variety of forms, from direct trolling on Twitter to light-hearted mocking of her athletic physique by fellow players. Over the years, Williams has been described by online commenters as well sections of the media as a "gorilla", “manly” “savage,” and so on. Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpischev publicly referred to both the Williams sisters as “brothers” and said they were “scary” to look at.

One of the great ironies of Serena’s career is that despite her dominant record against rival Maria Sharapova (she has won 19 of their 21 matches,) until the latter’s recent suspension because of a failed drug test, Williams earned about half of what the Russian did from endorsements. Just last fall, in an attempt to defend Sharapova’s superior marketability, ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted: “Racism talk is idiotic when it comes to Serena. It’s the same marketplace that pays big $ to tons of black athletes.”

Over the 17 years during which Serena has occupied the world stage, there have been occasional outbursts, some unprofessional behaviour on court, and times when she was not the most gracious of losers, particularly towards the beginning of her career, when she often refused to give her opponents credit when they beat her. It is important to acknowledge these moments. Because, like everyone else, Serena is human and has resided inside a cauldron of tremendous pressure and hostility.

But, more importantly, her past transgressions only serve to highlight the remarkable evolution of Serena Williams. She has matured before our eyes into someone who epitomises professionalism and dignity. Last year, Williams ended her 14-year boycott of Indian Wells, choosing to return there. Earlier this year, when Sharapova confessed to having failed the drug test, Serena was one of the very few players to publicly applaud her longtime rival’s courage in coming clean.

And then there is the small matter of dealing with losses on the tennis court when the stakes were impossibly high. Since last year’s US Open, Williams suffered three unexpected defeats in consecutive Grand Slam finals while trying to equal Graf’s record. On each occasion, she conducted herself with utmost grace, acknowledging her opponents with a generosity and warmth that proves what a long way she’s come.

Today, as she stands astride the sporting world like a colossus, let us not forget the path she has travelled and the obstacles she’s had to overcome. Slowly but steadily, the world, or at least most of it, has learned to embrace Serena Williams. And she in turn has embraced both herself and the world around her. Now, finally, she is truly America’s champion.

Oindrila Mukherjee tweets here.