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Serena Williams is an author, actress, designer, philanthropist and … wait for it … a certified nail technician. Of course, she also happens to be one of the greatest female tennis players of all time. But since her return from a trifecta of injuries, including a mysteriously sliced toe tendon, a pulmonary embolism and even a bike crash, Serena has morphed into the one thing I never believed she could be: a sympathetic figure.

When I think of Serena the tennis player, I can’t help but admire her game, her competitive will and the resulting respect she commands on court. Even after a nearly yearlong layoff, she was still the odds-on favorite to win Wimbledon this year. Given her talent, it’s too bad Serena has often had a hard time letting her racket do the talking. Here are just a few examples of her less than gracious comments:

• After winning the U.S. Open in 1999, a 17-year-old Williams said, “I touch everyone. Everyone wants to see me, and I don’t blame them. Got to get a look at Serena.”

• “I just think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors,” a sullen Serena said of Justine Henin after losing to the Belgian (for the third consecutive time) in the 2007 U.S. Open quarterfinals.

• “We all know who the real No. 1 is,” she said after Dinara Safina rose to No. 1 in the world rankings in the spring of 2009. “Quite frankly, I’m the best in the world.”

(Quite frankly, she was right, but she could have been more respectful of Safina.)

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