Serena Can Make Loss Work for Her and Tennis

Serena Williams lost to Kim Clijsters, 7-5, 6-3, Monday night in the finals of the Home Depot WTA Championships, and it was the best thing that could have happened to women's tennis.

It is most important to keep Serena interested.

"I like that I didn't win today," Serena said, "because I'm so motivated right now to win the Australian Open. It's like last year when I didn't play the Australian, I got super-motivated. I told myself I was going to win the French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open."

Done, done and emphatically done. That's just the kind of person Serena is. A go-getter.

So let's expect that Williams will find herself a little more stamina. She admitted she was winded against Clijsters after being pushed hard by Jennifer Capriati on Sunday in the semifinals. But Serena has learned to figure things out. About her game, about herself. She'll do it again.

Before the match, important men wearing suits came forward to talk about how committed everybody is to bring these championships back to Staples Center. It hasn't been a secret that attendance was dismal at times and, at best, barely satisfactory. Some of the players had been openly lethargic, which resulted in some non-competitive matches.

But everybody is happy, the suits said. The tournament, which had left Munich after barely touching down last year, will be here again next year, the suits said. They kept talking about "a long-term commitment," which is vaguely optimistic. And there was lots of talk about "strong brands" and "brand association" and "strong brand situations."

Right now, the most important brand women's tennis has is Serena Williams. Therefore it is important to keep Serena healthy, happy and challenged.

Serena is a personality. She is engaging and attractive. She is physically imposing with an iron athletic will. She pushes herself on the tennis court -- her game is not only about power now, but about angles and touch and changing the pace -- and her life off the court is filled with acting gigs and fashion shows.

Serena is fun, she is pretty in pink, a tigress in black and she has managed to make all the other women, even her older sister Venus, invisible. She has rarely been pushed on the tennis court this year. Until Monday night, Serena had lost only four matches this year, and one of those was a mid-match retirement because of an ankle injury that kept her out of the Australian Open.