MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams was utterly unaware that a victory on Saturday night would put her back at No. 1. Her coach Patrick Mouratoglou did all he could to keep her in the dark.
But there was no hiding the other statistical stakes as Williams walked back into Rod Laver Arena, headphones around her neck and game-face in place, to play her older sister Venus Williams in the Australian Open final.
The tennis circuit can be an echo chamber where the same questions and themes reverberate from week to week as the locations change but the protagonists do not.