Wimbledon without a Williams sister: Imagine that.

Mad cow disease triggered panic throughout Great Britain. Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morrisette was the album of the year. Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister of Israel, the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, Tupac Shalkur was fatally shot and, at Wimbledon, Steffi Graf claimed her 20th Grand Slam singles title by defeating Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario.

The year was 1996 and it was the last year—until this year—that the ladies' Wimbledon draw did not feature either Venus or Serena Williams. Think about that for a moment: That’s 28 years’ worth of Wimbledon, a full decade longer than Roger Federer’s SW19 streak (18 years, 2003-2021). That’s a decade longer than Coco Gauff, age 20, has been on this earth. Gosh.

It’s tempting to claim that Wimbledon will be diminished this year, something vital missing. For some, that might be the sight of Venus looking queenly, her regal bearing accentuated on the historic green lawns. For others, the memory may be aural: that sound, like tons of gravel sliding down a great chute, issuing from Centre Court as Serena hammers down a serve that leaves a cloud of white talc hanging momentarily in the air—along with the words: “Game and first set, Miss Williams.”

Those are nice, sentimental constructions, but as memorable as the Williams era at Wimbledon is to us, and no matter how indelible those images and memories, Wimbledon will move on, and we will all miss the sisters only in an abstract way. Here come Iga and Coco, Marketa and Jessica and Aryna and Elena and so forth. Nothing will wipe away our memories or feelings about Venus and Serena, but our eyes will be roving elsewhere. We’ll be all jazzed and oooohing-and aaahing like we once did over the sisters, but the love will be for someone else.

Those who resent or criticize the amount of praise and money heaped upon the top stars of the game tend to forget just how quickly the gravy train comes to a halt and the fashion editors and sports reporters stop calling. Truly, tennis is a sport where the only thing that matters more than what you did yesterday is what you do tomorrow—and when there is no more tomorrow the significance of yesterday is greatly reduced. It travels from the front page to the paper recycling bin, reduced in the blink of an eye to a digital Wikipedia page.

But thank God for that page, and others like it. It lifts a player and her career out of the now, keeps her becoming a hamster without a wheel. The statistics are real. The history is immutable and inarguable. No. It isn’t live and in-your-face and happening in real time any more. The thrill is gone but the record is not, and in the long run that matters more.

So here we go:

Venus, age 44, compiled a singles record of 90-19 at Wimbledon. She’s lost more matches there than some fair players of her generation have won. Williams won five of nine Wimbledon finals, the only player not named Williams to beat her in the final was recently-retired Garbiñe Muguruza in 2017. It’s scary to think what Venus might have accomplished at Wimbledon had Serena decided to pursue ice climbing, or beach volleyball, instead of tennis.

Serena, age 42, fell just two matches of winning 100 matches at Wimbledon (98-14). Her record in finals is 7-4. The three players to beat her for all the marbles excepting Venus, were: Maria Sharapova, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep. Given Serena’s impact on Venus’ career, it’s passing strange that she actually lost finals to more players.

Those are glittering statistics. Hall-of-Fame numbers, and then some. Numbers that make you think, “Go back to crazy town with that bag of ridiculous!” But the most remarkable statistic is one that has nothing to do with the sisters’ feature accomplishments. It testifies to the unique nature of the Williams sister phenomenon in all of its implausible glory.

The sisters rose, hand-in-hand, to dominance in a sport that is notoriously hard on siblings. They blew up the conventional wisdom by also locking down six Wimbledon doubles titles. And while this is about Wimbledon, it’s impossible to omit that they were 14-0 in Grand Slam doubles finals. 

That may be the most absurd stat of all, but it’s also the one that lands the dart closest to the bullseye when it comes to the significance of the sisters. They shattered the received wisdom in numerous ways and thereby opened the floodgates on transformational change in who played the game, and how and why. That change will go on at Wimbledon even if, at long last, the sisters cannot.