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Continuing with our series on the greatest tennis players of all time, here’s No. 8 on our list.
No. 8 – Serena Williams
From the ghettos of Compton to the queens of the tennis world, there has been nothing conventional about the Williams sisters. Not the way they were learnt the sport from their father, not the way they skipped the junior tennis circuit, and definitely not the way they played the game.
Venus and Serena – or should that be Serena and Venus? – introduced a new brand of power tennis when they came on to the tour, combining it with big serving and dynamic athleticism never seen before in the women’s game. But such was the intensity of the competitive fire within Serena that she soon distanced herself from her elder sister, and went about assaulting tennis records in a manner that didn’t leave any doubt who the top dog in the Williams family was. And while many of Serena’s contemporaries who started out with her have retired, burnt out or broken down physically, Serena Williams is, to this day, going strong – currently ranked no. 4 in the world, and still winning Grand Slams.
Serena is undoubtedly the greatest player in the post Evert-Navratilova-Graf era. Her 14 Grand Slam singles titles (5 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 5 Wimbledon, and 3 US Open) put her fifth on the all-time list. And she is also one of only five women to hold all the four Slams at the same time; that happened when she completed the ‘Serena Slam’ in 2002-2003, beating sister Venus in all four of those finals. Add to that her 13 Grand Slam doubles titles (all with sister Venus), 2 Olympic gold medals and 3 mixed doubles Slams, and it’s no surprise that Serena finds herself so high on this list of all-time greats. And she has been able to do it all while studying fashion, nail-painting and being a part-time actress.
There have been skeptics and questions asked of her choices all along. Serena’s fitness and commitment to the sport have come under the scanner several times – from the media, from former tennis stars and from the public itself. But as her triumph at Wimbledon a few weeks ago showed, Serena, at the age of 30, is still among the top guns in the game. When she is at her best, there is no doubt that she is the best player in the game.
When her career comes to an end, there will be several things that will stand out. Her boycott of Indian Wells and her outbursts at the US Open (in 2010 and 2011) will be as much part of Serena’s legacy as her fashion sense and press room quips. But if there is one thing that defines Serena, it’s her mental toughness. Serena’s competitive resolve has seen her win many battles on and off the court. And while players around her crumbled under the weight of expectations and pressure, Serena performs her best under pressure – both in the spotlight and on the tennis court, where she firmly believes she belongs.
Of course, there’s another thing that could be said to define Serena the player – her serve. The Serena serve is perhaps the single most important shot in the history of women’s tennis; she can rely it on to destroy her opponents, pull herself out of trouble, or even douse a spirited challenge of a game opponent – you name it, and Serena’s serve can do it.
If she remains healthy, Serena could still add a couple more Slams and perhaps a gold medal or two to her resume. 15 months ago, Serena was in the hospital battling a pulmonary embolism and hematoma. Her comeback from there to becoming Wimbledon champion shows just how much the game still means to her. Serena is a supernova whose time to fade has still not come, and by the time her career is done, you may well find her several places higher in this list.
Here’s a highlights clip of the Serena-Dementieva semifinal match from Wimbledon 2009. This match perfectly encapsulated almost every one of Serena’s defining attributes – her serve, her game-changing backhand, her incredible power, and most importantly, her never-say-die spirit.
These are the other players who have made it to the list so far:
No. 20 – Venus Williams; No. 19 – Justine Henin; No. 18 – Ken Rosewall; No. 17 – Andre Agassi; No. 16 – Pancho Gonzales; No. 15 – Monica Seles; No. 14 – John McEnroe; No. 13 – Ivan Lendl; No. 12 – Jimmy Connors; No. 11 – Margaret Court; No. 10 – Billie Jean King; No. 9 – Rafael Nadal
Read the detailed write-ups on all the players in this list here:
The greatest tennis players of all time
