Although this notion seems outright foolish in retrospect, Serena Williams’ return to action didn’t appear to be one of the preeminent storylines at the outset of the 2022 National Bank Open.
Any time the greatest player of all-time — hell, maybe the greatest athlete of all-time — takes the court, there’s a baseline level of intrigue to be sure, but with a cohort of younger, emerging stars, Canadian fan favourites and a number of former world No. 1s in the mix, we’d all be lying if we thought Williams would reemerge as the defining story of the tournament.