On a gray, gloomy Wednesday in Manhattan, Serena Williams was swaddled in bath towels to stay warm in an air-conditioned corner suite on the 41st floor of the Lotte New York Palace Hotel. The room’s normally panoramic view had been obscured by dense fog, making it a challenge to see even across the street.
That seemed an apt metaphor for Williams’s tennis career as she comes back from maternity leave at age 36.
It remains unclear whether she will be able to return to dominance. As she heads to Europe to start her clay-court season, she has played in only two tournaments in 2018, winning two matches and losing two and struggling, understandably, to regain full fitness.