gainesvol82
Reminding Shane Beamer that his fans also like coc
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Serena is possibly the best women's athlete in history and has more muscle mass than a considerable portion of men and double that of most female tennis players to go along with as much or more skill than any other woman. She was playing against women who, while professionals, are not considered top level all-time players and mostly stood no chance. Venus beat her early in their careers but fell off fairly early and there was nobody left to challenge her.
Serena was too good for ladies play and not quite good enough for men's play, not due to skill disparity so much as due to power disparity.... especially when serving. She couldn't control her lack of competition but it would have been nice for her to have some semblance of a rival in the 15 or so years after her sister faded in ability and eventually retired. Had she accomplished what she did against Steffi Graf and Monica Celes then I probably have a different viewpoint but, had they been in the same era, I think Graf would have been close to her equal and Celes could have been the best ever if she hadn't been attacked at a young age by a Graf fan. She took 2 years off and was never the same, tbough Monica did win a few more titles. Serena also won so many straight set matches with scores of 6-2 and 6-3 until she got to the latest part of her career so she had less stress on her body. She also won tons of doubles titles with Venus but doubles don't take nearly as much out of players, which is why many retired singles players still win doubles championships.
I don't understand how her accomplishments against far inferior opponents earn her a considerably higher ranking than the 3 men who battled each other for most of their careers, played significantly more overall tennis due to the men's game being best of 5 sets instead of 3, having epic back and forth battles that often went at least 4 or 5 sets, also had tougher competition from the men who were below the Big 3 in rankings and are 3 of the top 5 players of all time (probably even the 3 best of all time) and they all managed to accomplish every bit as much as Serena in terms of number of Major titles.
She is great. Best woman of all time and it's not close but is what she did more impressive than any of the 3 men? No.
Even one other player of similar caliber to her or a few players well beneath her abilities but able to stand a chance to a healthy Serena then I would have no problem with her much higher ranking....but she didn't and mostly only lost when injured or in a slump.
I'm surprised she didn't win every Major during her run and destroy the record books. Rafa, Federer and Novak have similar amounts of Major wins as Serena against the best period of men's tennis ever seen. They shouldn't be punished as "less great" because their careers mostly overlapped....it makes their achievements more impressive than hers. Novak is the best ever tennis player in my book.
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