Is Serena Williams good enough to defeat the 100th-ranked ATP player?

Serena Williams is a good player, but is she good enough to defeat the likes of Andy Murray?

Serena Williams is undoubtedly the greatest female tennis player right now, and arguably the greatest of all time too. Having won a whopping 17 Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal, Williams stands head and shoulders above the WTA tour at the moment. She is the current World No. 1 tennis player, and has held on to that position for a long time now.

Serena is mostly a baseline player known for her thundering serve and penetrating ground strokes, but she also tries to bring in a lot of variations into her game. She is often slammed for being nothing more than a mere powerhouse, but how can one become a world champion without knowing one’s lines well enough to get balls in, to produce amazing winners, smashes, crosscourts bullets, volleys and laser backhands?

Her raw strength is one of Serena’s greatest assets. The stylish player has quite a muscular body which enables her to smash a ball back or serve a fast one so fiercely that it sometimes seems her opponents deliberately refrain from putting their racquet to the ball, lest they are forced to scamper to fetch a spare one. Serena is also known to be extremely swift in her game play, and does not let her opponents breathe. Give her a fast one and the ball is right back at you, in the blink of an eye. Give her a slow one and you are only inviting disaster upon yourself.

Williams has beaten several strong women players in her career spanning more than 15 years, including the likes of Amelie Mauresmo, Caroline Wozniacki, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova. She has achieved just about everything there is to achieve in women’s tennis. So the logical question that follows in everybody’s mind is – can Serena Williams defeat an ATP player?

Well personally speaking, I’d say yes, definitely! She has the strength and the skills to match the male players. The reason she has been so successful on the WTA tour is that her game is unlike that of any other female player. Her combination of raw power and lightning quick foot speed is something that simply cannot be countered on the women’s tour. Why can’t it be effective on the men’s tour too, then?

The men’s tour is, in modern times, dominated by baseline defense and long rallies. And Serena is well-known for her tendency to try and shorten points whenever she can, by hitting flat groundstrokes and taking time away from the opponent. If she faces an opponent whose primary aim is to get every ball back in play, she would always stand a very good chance of overwhelming that player with her unique brand of all-out attack.

There was a rumour doing the rounds in 2013 that Andy Murray was interested in playing her in an exhibition match but that encounter, sadly, did not take place. However, if it were to, then it would have been quite a good one to watch wherein it would be interesting to see if Murray would be able to return Serena’s powerful serve and if she could keep up with his fast legs.

But Murray is one of the world’s top four players. It would not be completely unthinkable for Serena to beat, say, a 100th-ranked or maybe even a 50th-ranked ATP player. It would be tough for the men to keep up with her immense energy and her amazing groundstrokes!

So here’s to wishing Williams taking on an ATP player in a friendly match soon, so that we can finally put the debate to rest, once and for all.