Slam, Glam, Serena

Bammer. It's a name jackhammered into the brain of Serena Williams--the two syllables most responsible for why the U.S. tennis diva matters once again. In a chump-change Tasmanian tune-up for the Australian Open earlier this year, Williams, then ranked a paltry 94th in the world, fell to an Austrian named Sybille Bammer in a quarterfinal match. After some serious sobbing, Williams had what she calls her "Rocky moment." The next day, she stuffed a credit card into her sports bra--"in case I got thirsty"--and ran the steps of a Tasmanian park for hours. "I was just so mad," she says. "Whenever...