Now Serena serves touch of reality...

A FEW weeks ago Serena Williams was held up as the super-est of superwomen who had given birth (to Alexis Olympia in September) and was about to roar back to world-class tennis.

Hadn’t she won the Australian Open in January 2017 when she was eight weeks pregnant? Sure enough she reached the Wimbledon final this year. Of course she did, she’s Serena Williams. Losing to Germany’s Angelique Kerber was a minor blip – the exception that proves the rule.

But the comeback hasn’t gone as planned. A couple of weeks ago Serena lost to Johanna Konta in the Silicon Valley Classic in straight sets 6-1, 6-0. That’s the kind of result that I expect when I play tennis. On a good day. Even when I wear my glasses. It’s not what we expect from Serena.

Then she pulled out of the Rogers Cup in Canada for “personal reasons” and says she was “in a funk”. She has been open about her traumatic labour – an emergency caesarean section followed by a life-threatening pulmonary embolism – her C-section wound ripped open by intense coughing. Her first six months of motherhood were spent in bed recovering.

She is now hinting that she is suffering from postpartum depression and worries that she is not being a “good mom”.

Poor woman. The original Serena Williams narrative (bounces straight back after baby and wins a whole slew of Grand Slams) will have to be rewritten. But that’s no bad thing. She’s still probably the greatest woman tennis player ever. And now we know that apart from being an icon of female power, strength and beauty – she’s human after all.