Caira Conner

In April, thousands of people, and occasionally their pets, flocked to the coastal city of Naples, Florida. They weren’t in town for an AARP convention or the bacchanalia of spring break. No, the Minto US Open Pickleball Championships, brought to you in part by Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts, was in the final stretch of its seven-day run. For one week, attendees watched, cheered, and imbibed as hopefuls thwacked it out for the title and its $100,000 purse.

In the end, it was the knee.Roger Federer has played more than 1,500 matches in 24 years, and has never quit in the middle of one for injury, illness, exhaustion, burnout, or apathy. His most formidable on-court opponents, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who have surpassed him in Grand Slam count and are still battling it out for statistical GOAT status, cannot say the same. Nadal has retired (ended play) mid-match nine times, Djokovic thirteen.

Unless Serena Williams pulls off the kind of feat typically reserved for Hollywood endings at this year’s U.S. Open, 23 is the number of Grand Slam singles titles with which she will retire. It is a number that makes her the all-time winningest, slammiest singles champion, of any gender, in the modern incarnation of tennis (Rafael Nadal did recently inch closer to her record, capturing his 22nd at this year’s French Open, but still).