By Tom Decent
The world cannot get enough of Serena Williams.
She is on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated, she's the subject of the feature story in the New York Times Magazine and only a few weeks ago she sent the world crazy with those incredible photos from the New York Magazine.
Serena Williams is on top of the world as she nears a calendar year Grand Slam and equalling Steffi Graf's grand slam tally of 22.Credit: Instagram
She's keeping the paparazzi happy too, snapped kissing Canadian rapper Drake at a schmick Italian restaurant in Cincinnati on Sunday.
And for those who were not aware, Williams stands to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win a calendar Grand Slam when she takes to the court in the US Open next Monday.
If successful, Williams will also equal Graf's tally of 22 grand slams - behind only Margaret Court's 24 in the Open era.
Claudia Rankine's piece for the New York Times Magazine is a revealing insight into a woman, regarded by many as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, who has been subjected to racism and taunted about her masculine physique for more than a decade.
Williams' success as a tennis player is one thing, but the legacy she leaves is just as important to her.
"We have to be thankful, and we also have to be positive about it so the next black person can be No. 1 on that list," Williams told the New York Times Magazine. "Maybe it was not meant to be me. Maybe it's meant to be the next person to be amazing, and I'm just opening the door.
"Zina Garrison, Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe and Venus opened so many doors for me. I'm just opening the next door for the next person."
Williams can thank her father Richard, in part, for that. He writes in his autobiography Black and White: The Way I See It how he would toughen his daughters up by bringing "busloads of kids from the local schools into Compton to surround the courts while Venus and Serena practised. I had the kids call them every curse word in the English language, including 'Nigger'," he wrote. "I paid them to do it and told them to 'do their worst'."
According to Rankine, "his focus on racism meant that the sisters were engaged in two battles on and off the court".
Williams' body, more than her race, has been the subject of scrutiny ever since her professional debut as a 14-year-old.
The article also discusses about why Maria Sharapova is the world's highest-paid female athlete ($29 million a year according to Forbes) and how she earns more than Williams ($24 million).
"If they want to market someone who is white and blonde, that's their choice," Williams said with a tone of impatience according to Rankine. "I have a lot of partners who are very happy to work with me.
"I can't sit here and say I should be higher on the list because I have won more. I'm happy for her [Sharapova], because she worked hard, too. There is enough at the table for everyone."
Money is one thing but attention is another. It can be negative - like the all the times Williams has been accused of being born a male, using steroids and that time head of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev called her and sister Venus "the Williams brothers".
The Sports Illustrated cover image of Williams giving a steely look to a tennis ball tossed in the air, as well as the cover piece in the The New York Times will only increase the hype ahead of her historic quest for her 22nd grand slam victory.
You can also be sure that in between matches at Flushing Meadows, the celebrity gossip magazines will be watching Williams' every move, hoping to get another money shot of Drake and the sportswoman the world just can't get enough of.