One thing is clear. Whether you adore HRC (that would be Hillary Rodham Clinton) and see her as a gutsy, trailblazing pioneer, or vilify and dismiss the New York Ms. as the Wicked Witch of the East—a chilly over-produced (anything for a vote) opportunist—a single question looms: Will tattooed truckers in Fresno, clod-kicking farmers northeast of Des Moines or soccer moms in Malibu give their precious vote to an intense, ambitious woman?

Certainly we’ll soon be encountering many a commentary about talented, tough ladies. But if the pundits want to know a thing or two about fearsome women, they might just want to crack open their tennis history books. After all, this sport is crowded with steely ladies. Alice Marble was a spy. Althea Gibson overcame Jim Crow hatred. Chris Evert, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf all exuded an unblinking mindset, and Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin aren’t exactly dreamy, doe-eyed maidens frolicking ‘bout the maypole. Plus, there are some who claim that a gal named Billie Jean did more for feminism than anyone since Eve.

But these days, if you want to check out a tough lady in sports, just sashay down Serena Street for a block or two. In all of sports, there isn’t a woman who inspires, infuriates and entertains quite like Richard Williams’ perpetually provocative, not so little, baby daughter.

Sure, both Hillary and Serena are one-name wonders who are fierce, fighting super-achievers. But what else do our country’s first prominent female presidential candidate and the world’s foremost black female athlete have in common? Let us count the ways.

10 THE SHADOW: A quarter century ago, Bill Clinton’s savvy young wife let us know that she was not exactly your typical, cookie-cutter, “stand by your man” politician’s wife as she informed us, “If you vote for my husband, you get me. It’s the two-for-one blue-plate special.” But even now, there are times she fades as her husband’s charismatic star shines brightly. Similarly, for years, Serena was primarily Venus’ little sister and still she bristles. “Ever since I was young, even when I came on tour, it was Venus, Venus. Oh, and the little sister. My whole goal in life was just to prove people wrong.”

9 CONSPIRACY THEORY: Hillary is a conspiracy magnet. Did she kill Vincent Foster or trigger the Enron scandal, and what about Whitewater? And there are still plenty of suspicious aficionados who claim that when Serena and Venus faced each other, Papa Richard Williams was a match-fixing weapon of mass deception.

8 FASHION POLICE: Guess what? High-profile women are scrutinized a tad more than guys. So every new Hillary hairdo, all her post-feminist pantsuits, and even her oversized sunglasses draw deep-think analysis. Likewise, Serena’s outrageous outfits prompted Time magazine to ask, “You’re going out on the court in that?” Dan Anzel added, “Even the TV cameras seemed embarrassed!” Never mind that Serena’s been a regular on Blackwell’s Worst Dressed List, she soldiers on, sporting low-cut dresses on Hollywood red carpets, knee-high boots on New York courts and skimpy Wonder Woman outfits in Miami. Her infamous black cat suit was said to be “clingier than a preschooler on the first day of school,” and she sports so many sparkling jewels that she was dubbed the Empress of the Bling Dynasty.

7 THE 800-POUND GORILLA: Sure, fashion gossip is bantered about openly. But matters of body-types and sexuality are strictly hush-hush topics heard mostly at water coolers or on edgy blogs. So no, never mind the hushed whispers about Hillary’s sexual orientation, those mean-spirited swipes by her most recent senatorial opponent who claimed she was ugly and had spent millions on cosmetic surgery or those photographers who hope to snap suggestive shots. Instead, let us focus on Serena, who has unleashed a curious, often brave campaign to get the public to value her distinct body, which time and again, we have seen tightly tucked into minimalist outfits as she sweated and strained before us, a singular figure in the vast arena.

Only the certifiably blind could miss that her chest, rear and thighs were bountiful. So we often heard Serena’s mantra-like affirmations: “I love me. I love everything about me. I love my legs, my arms, my lips, my eyes. It’s important for everyone to love themselves.”

After the ’02 U.S. Open, Christopher Clarey noted, “Suddenly it was cool to have curves. On a tour where players with the physique of an exclamation point play…Williams provided an alternative view of style for the masses…After two confident weeks in a cat suit, she is a symbol of self-esteem.”
“What was once derided as excess body mass,” added Chris LeGrand, “has now become momentum. In the world of Serena, big girls don’t cry, they just bash the be-Jesus out of the ball.”

But in the end, it was Serena herself who offered perhaps the most candid, jaw-dropping self-analysis in tennis history: “[It’s] just because I have large bosoms and I have a big ass…I was just in the locker room staring at my body, and I’m like, am I really not fit? Or is it just because I have all these extra assets that I look not fit?...I’m bootylicious, and that’s how I’m always going to be.”

6 DRAMA AND TRAUMA: What female politician has endured more setbacks than Ms. H? The debacle of her health-care defeat, the protracted investigations into her ill-fated Whitewater land deal, the drumbeat of withering critiques on and off the Internet and, of course, the most humbling nightmare any First Lady has endured—her husband’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.

Not surprisingly, the path for Serena (who as a kid heard gunshots while practicing on Compton’s hardscrabble inner-city courts) also hasn’t been strewn with rose petals. Dreary lawsuits, being hooted at for two hours during an Indian Wells final, a series of injuries, surgery, the black ‘n’ blue divorce of her parents and, most traumatically, the brutal murder of her sister, Yetunde, have had their impact. And she’s only 25.

5 THE COMEBACK KID: Yes, Bill Clinton was dubbed the comeback kid, but Hillary and Serena know a thing or two about gutsy turnarounds. After her clumsy push for health-care changes imploded, Hillary circled her wagons and became more demure as she quickstepped to assume the role of the traditional (not too outspoken) First Lady and adopted more benign (think highway beautification) causes. Then, after surviving the Lewinsky free fall, all she did was twice get elected in an adopted state and go on to become a formidable front-running candidate for prez.

As for Serena, she can point to her own notable comebacks, like in ’04, when, after being sidelined for eight months, she stormed back to win in Miami—an out-of-nowhere triumph that foreshadowed her more recent, even more astounding Melbourne miracle, where she shook off the effects of a two-year walkabout, packed with maddening indifference, glitzy distractions, hobbling injuries and a tepid commitment.

4 TAKE-NO-PRISONERS ROLE MODELS: From pillow talk to power lunches, women have long been reshaping the contours of modern American life from all the implicit assumptions of domestic nesting to the rugged realities of the workplace. But the path has been harrowing, the results mixed. Some returned to the joys of traditional home life. Others butted heads with the glass ceiling.
All the while, Hillary was a singular case.

Call it fate or the nonstop commitment of one of the most effective power-fraus we’ve ever known, but with Clinton, there was a certain sense of destiny as she rose to become an oh-so-familiar icon of feminist change. Rousing rhetoric is so yesterday. Power is so today. College valedictorian, mother, high-rise lawyer, First Lady, sober don’t-rock-the-boat senator, historic presidential candidate—Hillary embodies the “I can have it all” ethos. Millions dream. Hillary acts.

Fist clenched, skin glistening, muscles bulging, collapsing on court, then rising to roar a primal scream—Serena advances what Althea Gibson and Billie Jean King began. Yes, she can be a demanding diva; a disingenuous tease; a peacock-vain, shamelessly indulgent talent who squandered many an opportunity. (And ‘tis true, she once actually informed us that “[it’s hard] to pick out chandeliers…it’s so tiring, all the decisions.”)

But at least the lady that Sports Illustrated called “the most charming figure in women’s sports” is rarely dull. “I always consider myself an entertainer,” she announced. When asked to compare Wimbledon and the Oscars, she quipped, “You can’t really beat [winning an Oscar]. You can always win Wimbledon.” And what was her and Venus’ goal in our sport: “Our ambition,” she reported, “is to take over tennis.”

3 THE LIGHTENING RODS: The Martha Stewart syndrome is alive and well. Many Americans still wince when a woman is too smart or powerful or when she’s whizzing along on the express train to success. Not surprisingly, Hillary-bashing is a thriving cottage industry.

Writer Jack Hitt suggests, “Hillary hating is such a national pastime for both Democrats and Republicans that it should be its own verb—‘Hillarating.’ Typically, even her supporters make the case for her only after plowing through a lot of caveats.” Dubbed “Sister Frigidaire,” compared to Lady MacBeth and the focus of a volume called “The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places,” Clinton has been said to be icy, manipulative and conniving, a clawing shrew and a dominating dowager. Ouch! Clinton bashing easily goes international and touches our sport, too. “There’s more chance,” wrote the Sydney Herald’s Richard Hind, “that President Hillary Clinton would put her husband in charge of the White House intern program than there was of an Aussie winning the Australian title.”

Serena, too, has her downside. At times impatient and thin-skinned, she can be self-absorbed, dismissive, silly and chock full of denial. In other words, she’s an easy mark. Last year, there was a chorus of A-list names like McEnroe, Evert and Bollettieri who all sang the same tune, “Hey kid, stop flushing your time and talent down the drain.” Then as the Aussie Open unfolded, the blogosphere sizzled with presumptive criticism. One critic said Serena’s presence in Melbourne was “a ridiculous charade.” She wished there was someone who, like Toto in the Wizard of Oz, would simply pull back the curtain to “expose the inflated Williams and her inflated ego.” Another contended, “When you can bring a game of the kind Serena trotted out, you can down a bag of Doritos, top it off with a couple of Ho-Hos and who’s going to get all mouthy about it?” TennisReporters.net said they could “think of at least 30 persons [in the industry] who have said Serena was rude to them. She’s reticent to talk about her very human, darker side.” Serena responds to all this with denial and affirmation. She states that she doesn’t read the press (some of whom she characterizes as “haters”) and admits, “I have a lot of people even close to me who doubt. I love doubters… [But] I believe in me. I’m my biggest fan.”

Ultimately, Jon Wertheim contended, “Serena won over the hearts and minds of the critics. Serena’s ‘irreverence’ has become her ‘taking the path less traveled.’ Her ‘arrogance’ has been recast as ‘confidence.’ Her ‘brute force’ has been upgraded to ‘sleek power.’ Outfits once described as ‘lapses in taste’ are now ‘bold and provocative.’ The consummate outsider has become the sport’s figurehead. As Williams sees it, reality broke the serve of perception.”

2 THE MISSING LINK: “There is really no aspect of collective fears,” wrote Jack Hitt, “that cannot be grafted onto Hillary’s character.” Yet even though Hillary has been front and center for decades, we really know her almost exclusively as the public personality. The inner Hillary, what really makes her tick still remains elusive. Similarly, we see Serena, the athlete, the whimsical, often flippant girl with the Holly-go-lightly giggle. The nuances of her character, the layers of her experience, the forces behind her drive, her fears and hopes are all a picture that still is to be painted.

1 BIG QUESTIONS: Hillary and Serena’s larger-than-life careers beg big questions. Why didn’t Hillary leave Bill? Will she become our first woman president and ultimately leave us a greater legacy than her presidential partner—the 40th president? As for Serena, why did she squander so much of that fabulous talent and can she now right her ship and again dominate?

For all their similarity, Hillary and Serena are obviously vastly different. Hillary is a politician seeking our vote, an unabashed policy wonk. Serena is a “just win, baby” athlete seeking titles who laughingly tells us, “I am not a thinker.” Most of all, Hillary and Serena differ in their expression. Sister Frigidaire is so tightly programmed that even her backers, at times, wonder where’s the joy, the humor, the heart.

In contrast, Serena’s free-flowing emotions have long been transparent, but never so much as in Australia. Here, the unmistakable beauty of Serena—big and bold—thundered triumphant. It’s not so much that she inexplicably roared back to defy the cadre of critics, that she so humbled the world’s No. 1 player, Sharapova, or that she leapfrogged an incredible 67 spots in the rankings. No, this was more a glorious statement of skill ‘n’ will, the desire to prove to herself and the world that she is a talent that cannot be denied, a force that will not be subdued. Her gaze searing, her body language unrelenting, she charged from the gate and offered nary a glance behind as she plucked each and every petal off of Sharapova’s considerable daisy. This was Secretariat winning by 22 lengths, the Jets downing the Colts in the Super Bowl, Ali reclaiming his crown.

And somewhere, I imagine, a certain presidential candidate was calling out, “You go, girl.”

To contact Bill Simons, email him at editorial@insidetennis.com

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