Love Don’t Love Nobody

A friend of mine owns and operates his own coffee shop in Harlem. (If you seriously like coffee, and not just coffee-flavored drinks, DM me later and I’ll point you in his direction.) We’ve known each other for a good long while now. He’s a Giants fan, so we talk a lot about football. And maybe baseball. But mostly football.

One day we were talking about some guy who was clearly overstaying his welcome in his position. My friend looked at me and said, Stacy, only time is undefeated.

Damn.

I think about that a lot as I watch athletes work their way through a variety of sports. No matter how good a person was at some point or another, let them keep living. If they keep living, in time, time will reverse what once went their way.

That step? It gets a little slower. That reflex? It hesitates, just a touch. That decision in your head on which way to run? Takes a little bit longer.

And before long, you’re wondering why you’re no longer winning matchups you used to win.

It’s not diet. Or conditioning. Or commitment to the game.

It’s life, yo. Life is taking back what it leased to you. Your lease is up, boo.

It was impossible not to see all of this on display during the Venus Williams-Sonia Kenin first-round match in the wee hours of Monday morning. To play that match, Williams was burning her 12th singles wild card of 2026. When the match began, she was 0-11.

Now she’s 0-12.

I became a sportswriter in 1994. Venus Williams played her first match at the U.S. Open in 1997. I was there. I’ve seen much of her career unfold. Of course she is undeniably a great champion. The woman has five Wimbledon singles titles, for crying out loud. She is one of one.

Monday morning’s match was different. And I’m not saying that people can’t evolve into different players who are exciting in different ways – Stan Wawrinka has been a different player for years now, and yet he’s found ways to remain entertaining and to win. Marin Cilic could go on that list. Also Gael Monfils. They gave us second acts that weren’t as spectacular as their first acts, but they were robust all the same.

(Wawrinka lost his first-round match on Monday evening to Matteo Berrettini, completing his U.S. Open career. The stands were full of Stan fans, wearing his shirts and shouting his name. Not because they were expecting to see the guy who used to go toe-to-toe with Federer/Nadal/Djokovic on a regular basis and win occasionally….but because they respect the player he has become.)

Maybe that is what Willams was hoping for –- a second act that would make her relevant in the day-to-day jockeying of who’s up and who’s down in the sport. Because to be clear, she will always be relevant to the sport in a historical context. She made history. She changed this sport. You cannot talk about women’s tennis without respecting her name.

But there comes a time when all greats fade from that everyday relevancy. Sometimes injury speeds up that process; sometimes illness. And sometimes it’s just time, taking back what it so generously leased you.

Early Monday morning, I watched Williams try to fight time. And yes, there was a stellar forehand here and there. Yes, some approach shots were nice. But for every point that earned cheers, there were a lot more points that were forgettable.

That step. That reflex. That decision. All just slow enough to create a problem that sheer willpower cannot overcome.

Watching her play Kenin (who is much younger, but very much fighting her own battle for relevance) was like watching two ghosts, wildly reaching backwards. Desperate to clutch something real. Something that used to be.

Neither one ever found anything to cling to.

[First published by Racquet Theory]