Whenever Venus Williams decides to end a professional tennis career that has already lasted nearly three decades, her greatest legacy at Wimbledon will not be her 11 titles (five singles, six doubles).
Nor will it be her astonishing longevity that has taken in a debut in 1997 and included, as it stands, 24 appearances at the tournament — despite battling numerous injuries and the auto-immune disorder Sjogren’s syndrome.
It will be how she broke down racial and sexual barriers, and in particular played a pivotal part in one of the most important moments in Wimbledon’s history: the 2007 decision to award equal prize money to men and women.
Williams, now 43, described this on Saturday as “still the best moment of my career” and after a first-round defeat to Elina Svitolina on Monday night that is likely to be her final match at Wimbledon, it’s a moment that requires proper reflection.
A moment that came after Williams juggled winning the title on multiple occasions with lobbying the All England Club to change its policy on equal prize money. On the day before winning her third Wimbledon title in 2005, she mixed practising forehands and backhands with presenting the case, unsuccessfully at that point, for equality to Wimbledon and the French Open. It was a level of…
