Serena Williams has to grab more Grand Slam titles to be the greatest ever, says the experts
“Admire her, detest her, She is the greatest ever"!
That's the sentence that surprised everyone from the post Wimbledon edition of Sports Illustrated.
It was a shock in one perspective. Serena, regardless of her persistent supremacy, has still to catch the career totals, the Slam victories as well as the championships trophies. In another perspective, however, it was not all that appalling. As it was just a magazine coat, and we all know that covers are all about overstatement.
However, the question is that why that magazine cover has out of the blue stated Serena Williams above Navratilova, Court, Evert and Graf? Let us consider the arguments behind this statement.
"Williams fight in a far more aggressive and competitive age".
The sports is more famous than ever, there is certainly more wealth in it and the women smash destructively and play a more physiological brand of the game. However has that resulted in more Hall of Fame level contesters? As far as competitive age is concerned, there is certainly no doubt about the fact that the game has become more of a physical contest now however all of those ex champs played more games per year as compared to Serena Williams so far in her career.
More significant however, is that the level of challenge in every age is tilted by the level of supremacy of the top ranked players? In case Graf had never played, Gabriela Sabatini probably would have been a six, seven or even eight times Grand Slam champion instead of a single timer.
While Serena has been far and wide to the greatest players of the previous decade and her age, she has not ruled the greatest player not called Williams, Justine Henin. Serena stands 8-6 overall versus Henin and only 2-4 at the big tournaments.
"None of the other players had to contest her sister in a major final".
Correct, Venus Williams is without any question an all time best, and it's a strange psychological fight for Serena. However Navratilova had to knock down eighteen times Grand Slam champion Evert repeatedly, where as Graf had to surpass Navratilova herself to
"The most significant hit in tennis is the undoubtedly the serve, and Williams' is the most fearsome as far as the women’s side is concerned”.
True, Serena's serve is without any question the finest ever, and if there were no other hits in the game of tennis, she'd have the GOAT nick for sure. However, by majority of the measures, Ivo Karlovic has the biggest destructive serve in men's side at present. Does that imply that we should neglect his results and rank him the number one player each season? Moreover, Navratilova and Graf had the most productive serves of their ages.
"She's been grabbing them since she was seventeen”.
Graf captured her very first Grand Slam at seventeen years of age and her last one at twenty nine, which is how old Williams will be within a period of few months. There is obviously no question that Serena can grab them for ages to come, and her lengthy career could ultimately make her the best player ever. However during her twenties, Williams wasn't as commanding as Graf. Graf grabbed her popular Golden Slam in the season 1988; however she also gained a total of three majors in a year on a total of four more occasions. On the other hand, Williams has not triumphed thrice in a year since 2002-03.
Slam count is what we normally go by to examine all-time excellence. However, there are other indicators of brilliance as well. There's a period placed at number one spot: Graf concluded a total of eight years there; Williams has managed it on two occasions. There are total trophies: Navratilova finished off with a total of one hundred and sixty seven, while Williams has thirty seven. There's goodness on all courts: Serena has gained all four Grand Slam trophies at least once while Graf won all of the four slams on four occasions at the least.
According to the experts, Serena Williams is definitely the greatest of the present era however it is not the right time to analyse and compare her career with some of the past greatest ever tennis players until her career is over.
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