Page 1

The air brushes her cheeks and her hands grow damper. She stops, wipes them vigorously, then runs her right arm across her face, using her wristband to clean the sweat from her forehead. She's been on this court for three hours and twenty-three minutes, her muscles throbbing, fatigue attacking her from all sides.

The roar of the crowd is deafening, but at this moment, as she prepares to serve, everyone maintains silence, expectant. It's the final match of the open tournament being played in Australia at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park. The tension hangs thick; the blue of the court seems to shine brighter than ever, screaming, perhaps, that this will be the last time she steps on it.

Leah Walker positions herself at the baseline, takes a deep breath, filling her lungs as much as they allow. She focuses on feeling the grip of her racket, every muscle in her body, every scar that tells her story. A story of triumphs and joys, but also of defeats, pain, tears, and tremendous effort. She breathes in again, she can feel it; this will be the last point of her entire career.

Match point.

She serves with that precision she's spent so many years perfecting, for which she's known worldwide. A sliced forehand that forces her opponent, Dana Wilson, to bend with effort and return the shot with power. Leah watches the ball, ready to move. She does so with an elegance worthy of a veteran athlete and with the fierceness of an elite champion. She takes several steps, distributes her body weight on her feet, and returns a drive like a missile, with all her strength, with all her heart.

The ball kisses the line and Dana Wilson isn't there to lose. She runs and reaches it in the last second, with little strength, the only she can apply, and the ball barely brushes the net.

A faint sound is heard, that of the audience holding their breath.

Leah Walker runs from the back of the court with every muscle screaming in pain. It doesn't matter, it's the last of her career, of that entire story that began when she was just a girl. Of endless training sessions, of coaches giving lessons, of travels, of solitude. Because Leah has loved tennis since she first became aware; her earliest memory is a court, feeling the rough surface with her hands. Then, the dry thud of the ball, the sun on her face, the sweat on her body. That's why she runs as if it were the most important thing in her existence. It is the most important thing in her existence, to leave this place through the front door, to retire as one of the greatest in history.

She hits the ball at an almost impossible angle; her coach turns her neck to understand the play. Leah leaves the ball suspended in the air for a moment, an eternal one, one that would be etched forever before that yellow sphere kisses the doubles line.

Winner. That's what it means. Leah Walker has just won the final.

Her legs lose all strength. Her muscles relax and she falls to her knees. She's no longer exhausted; she has just scored the final point of her story as a tennis player. Melbourne Park goes wild, shaking the court like never before, giving a farewell to the champion, the best. Leah brings her hands to her face and finds it completely soaked; it's not sweat, no. They're tears, it's effort, it's the weight of closing what for her is an entire life.

It's the end. The moment she's been preparing for over the past year has arrived. Leah suffered a most painful meniscus tear followed by a rotator cuff tear. The second she felt the sharp stab in her shoulder, the voice inside screamed that it was time to stop. She thought about it for weeks. She cried every day when she decided to do it. Anne and Natalie, her mothers, hugged her when Leah went to see them and broke down telling them she would announce her retirement. She couldn't go on, her body was exhausted. She spoke with her coach and together they decided that tennis would never forget her name. She did it well; Leah Walker retired in grand style, defeating one of the best players in the world, Dana Wilson, with a spectacular play, with a court packed with people, with all television cameras focused on her.

It's the end, yes, but also immortality.