Serena Williams took her fifth US Open singles title at the weekend, her 17th Grand Slam title, further cementing her as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Some commentators and even some other tennis greats already consider her the best female ever to play the game, but raw statistics will continue to be the sceptics’ best weapon until she surpasses Margaret Court’s 24 titles.
It has to be said that 13 of Court’s titles were gained prior to the ”open” era, but that is hardly her fault. Those who see this as a significant advantage to the Australian point to Steffi Graf’s 22 slams as the true benchmark for a modern-day player. Whatever the prevailing view, the record is tantalisingly close.
Achieving the record could be a tall order for a 32-year-old who is prone to injury and unapologetically disinterested in living, eating and sleeping the game that made her famous – her charity projects for African schools and her fashion business vie successfully for her passion.
As an advocate for Serena to be regarded as the greatest ever, I point to the period when she and her sister Venus alternated pre-eminence. As one would perhaps expect, factors other than pure tennis ability might contribute to little sis losing out to big sis on occasion. Serena has been beaten by Venus in or on her way to her seven grand slam titles several times. At least some of these titles would surely have gone the younger sibling’s way.
Serena has been world number one a record number of times and has seen many pretenders to her throne enter the fray and retire unfulfilled. The likes of Davenport, Hingis, Clijsters, Henin and Sharapova would certainly have enjoyed more success had it not been for the twin Williams barrels. It is tempting to think that the prospect of having to overcome the Williams juggernaut has demoralised challengers into finding another career path and, therefore, prolonged Serena’s reign.
Few doubt that, at an age where many sporting champions are clinging on to the last vestiges of their past achievements, Serena is as dominant as ever, perhaps more so. In the four of the last five seasons she has been fit (she sat out most of 2011 injured) Serena has won eight of the 16 slams. Marion Bartoli confounded all expectations by knocking the previously rampant American out at the quarter-final stage at this years Wimbledon. A worthy adversary at last? Alas no; Bartoli announced her retirement a few weeks ago.
Perhaps the last word should go to someone who really knows what she is talking about. Martina Navratilova, who, alongside her career-long rival Chris Evert, won 18 majors, said after Williams’ 13th slam at Wimbledon in 2010, at a time when credible challengers seemed to be coming from every direction and the champion’s desire seemed to be on the wane, that she deserved to be ranked in the top five of all time. She added: “It’s not just about how many slams you win or how many tournaments you win – it’s just your game overall. And she’s definitely got all the goods.”
Three years and four slams on, Martina will probably not need much persuasion to put Serena in a more select group.
