22 Grand Slams? How I Beat Serena in UNO — at the Beijing airport.
For many of us, we have one, fun personal story that breaks the barriers of age, interests, gender — you name it. A tall tale that’s real. It’s usually revealed at a party when a friend who wants to impress their other friends, turns to you, and says, “Tell us about that time…” Translation, tell us about that time that you were more interesting in life. For me, it’s a prompt for the story about my time in China, specifically about the time I played Serena Williams in UNO at the Beijing airport.
I ended up in Beijing because honestly, why not? Like any passionate recent college grad, I was confused. It was 2004. What now? What should I do? My answer, apparently, was to get a one-way ticket to Beijing. I had sent a cold email to the founder of a sports company I read about in the Financial Times. The piece was on the China Open, Beijing’s first major joint ATP/WTA tennis event.
I knew I loved tennis, I was the sixth man on my college team (for two years-ish) and I had studied Mandarin, probably speaking at a two-year old’s level. The tournament could use me I thought — free-labor and unbound enthusiasm for what was happening. My alternative was a 9-to-5 entry-level job. Not a bad thing, it just probably wasn’t for me at the time. I had three months of savings after I bought my airline ticket. I could figure something out.
Looking back, this was insane. Most people in my life at the time thought it was not normal; they weren’t wrong. In hindsight, I should have cut my dad more slack for being so understanding that I wanted to be a world away (again, after studying in Beijing a year before). I often imagine him telling folks at the time, “My daughter is working for some event in China. I don’t know anymore details. Neither does she.” I imagine an eye-roll in there. I owe him.
I landed in Beijing, and arrived at the tournament office two days later to jaws dropped on the floor. The team could not believe I actually boarded a flight (and expedited my visa) to “volunteer to help them” — for free. Like an animal at the zoo, I was a novelty. An American girl with gumption and a history degree.
The China Open 2004, Setting the Stage
Long story short, the main event, the China Open, was a 17-day tennis tournament. If you’ve ever worked an event in hospitality or marketing, now transport yourself to a location that’s not in your native tongue. Then get thrown into things that you’ve never done: facilitating press conferences, managing translators, making sure the photographer knows where to go, handling some annoying logistics, writing 1,000 word press releases (how do you really do this?), retrieving lunches, convincing irate Russians to do interviews after losses, tracking Serena’s bodyguards so she could walk to the court. The list goes on. It was a crash course in events and hospitality. Not rocket science, but I earned my keep, and did any job asked. I was grateful for the opportunity to be there.
Let me preface this story with more context about the tennis world. In general, the highest-ranking female athletes on the professional tennis tour do not hang out with each other. They spend time with their respective teams of coaches, trainers, etc. I get it. It’s not fun to grab dinner with an opponent who wants to behead you the next day on the court. Men seem to be better at being friends and enemies; for women it seems like there was more frenemies.
Serena arrived in Beijing by herself, and met someone from her team for part of the week, along with a trainer in tow. Besides that, it was business as usual. Think about it this way, if you travel for 300+ days of the year, you don’t take your family and friends on all of your trips, neither did Serena. It’s work, not fun.
I was introduced to Serena a few times over the course of the week as one of the people she should know if she needed anything. She never rang my bell.
Here’s the story: Fast-forward to the end of the tournament, Serena won the China Open. Her trophy spent the night with me, nestled under my futon for safe-keeping after the tournament finals. It’s now the day after the big “W”. I met Serena, her driver, a photographer, and a few other people from my company in Tiananmen Square. We took the money shot that would land in People (see below). [Fun fact: the photographer asked if I wanted to jump in for a shot. Being too cool, I said no. THAT was a regret. Trust me, I would do anything now to take that picture of me and Serena in Tiananmen Square. I am not too cool for that. circa: before Insta]
As I get in the car, my boss of one month, who was the fool who answered my email originally said, “Make sure she leaves this country happy”. Until that moment my goal for the morning had been to stay alert with the trophy in one piece. I just wanted to sleep after two weeks of failed shuteye. I was exhausted and honestly, I thought it was punishment to play babysitter at the airport for someone who was more than capable at navigating an airport. In fact, I had to go back to the airport later that day for my own flight, to be shipped to another event.
So we arrive at the airport, reluctantly. For VIPs in Beijing, at that time, one was taken to a special holding room, like a green room, where they were checked in and finalized via customs. White glove treatment, waiter service, no children shrieking — a reprieve before a long flight. It’s a service without a paid upgrade, you cannot buy it.
I walked into the room with Serena, her bodyguards outside the room, and brought her the paperwork she needed to sign for the flight. She signed.
I don’t remember what I was doing when out of nowhere she said, “I have a question, and it may be weird, but do you want to play UNO with me”? I smiled, then panicked.
Between my exhaustion and understanding how surreal it was to be in the Beijing airport with Serena, who just asked me to play UNO — I said, “Of course”. Sh*t, I didn’t quite remember how to play.
I told her that I hadn’t played UNO in a long time (think: since grade grade). She told me she’d show me, and I immediately woke up for my crash course/refresher. Like when you’re drunk and trying to get your keys in your door. Real, exaggerated focus. Big eyes on those UNO cards. Afterall, the marching orders were to make sure the champ left the country happy.
For the first five minutes of the game, she was cruising. She was probably like, who’s this sucker I roped into playing UNO with me. I think she just needed to win something that morning since she already won the tournament. I lost three games in a row. Then she got a phone call and became distracted. It was my moment of opportunity.
However, this is when things got exciting. I won a game of UNO. Finally! (Hey, I’m competitive too.) That was the turning point. I made the decision to say, eff it, I’m going to try. If Serena is not happy with me winning UNO, so what, it’s my time too. I then won the next game. Then the next game. I then justified my winnings; there’s nothing worse than beating someone who doesn’t try, right? It’s much more satisfying to suck the life out of someone who is trying — even at UNO. I wanted to give her that satisfaction. That was my job, I told myself.
By this time, Serena’s one hand was still holding the phone, but she was focused on ending my newfound glory. She ended up jumping off the call, and with the next game…she won. She pumped her first — in my face — not making this up, just as your favorite cousin would at family game night. She laughed, she was back on top. We played for another ten minutes with cards that were so worn and weathered, they probably had their own respective passport. Serena had schooled many people before me, apparently. This wasn’t her first time. Our match lasted 30 minutes before she admitted, “I’m sure you’re probably tired of playing.” She had beaten me enough to be satisfied.
With UNO over, Serena then asked me, “Why are you here?” Translation: why (the eff) are in you in China? I told her I had graduated college and played some tennis, and didn’t know what to do so I followed what was interesting to me. I did tell her that my family and friends thought I was crazy. She kind of agreed, which made me realize that she was more normal than I thought. For the next twenty or so minutes, we chatted. We talked about how she felt about being in Beijing for the first time, how she was dealing with the crowds (they were intense), and her fashion line. We’re the same age.
When it was time to say goodbye, I thought it was a little awkward since we clearly bonded over our time together (according to me) and our mutual love for the game of UNO (and tennis). I wanted to invite her home for Thanksgiving. I mean, Serena must think about the time I beat her in UNO in the Beijing airport every day. We’d need to have an annual rematch. I swear, there may have been a hesitation in her step; if it was 2016, we would have been fast Insta friends. But, at that time, we shook hands and said goodbye. No UNO games at Thanksgiving. I left my cards that day in Beijing, 12 years ago
This is the story of the Serena I met. After 22 Grand Slam wins, it’s fair to say that she will be described as one of the greatest athletes who lived. Her athleticism, tenacity, and overall longevity are incredible. I don’t think I’ll have as surreal a moment as I did in September 2004 at the Beijing Airport, but I became an even bigger fan that day. Serena was a focused renaissance woman, traveling on business. She was as human as many of my friends. She has personality, asked a ton of questions, and was curious. And she wins. Off-court, this was a person who had to field request after request, as people only asked things of her: sign this, we need you at this event, do that, show up here. And oh, yeah, keep winning to sell tickets.
At this point in my life, over a decade later, my “Serena story” is a fun one to relay to friends (and now memorialize online).
What I learned is that a one-way ticket offers the best journey forward. Over the last twelve years, there have been times that I lost that adventurous spirit, when I settled for a job to pay-off my student loans, or when I just worked, worked, and worked for a weekend. Or had to buckle down for personal reasons. But, I don’t really remember those times, I remember the moments when I took the chances.
Leaps may not have always landed me in Beijing airports playing UNO with Serena, but they have made me curious for the unknown. I think of my time in China often, and what it means to be disciplined and focused like Serena, especially now, as I’ve launched my own start-up. The one thing I realize is that stories can only be written when there’s no end in sight. One-way tickets are the way to go, if you can grab them.
