OT: Is Serena the greatest female athlete ever?

Submitted by superstringer on

Serena Williams won her 22nd Grand Slam today, straight sets over some other tennis player.

I've heard it debated before so I'll toss it out here.  Is she she greatest female athlete ever (any sport)?  She first attained the wold #1 ranking in 2002; and it's 14 years later and she's #1 again. Hasn't been there consistently, but over and over.

Is she the greatest woman tennis player ever?  Given the longevity of her career--probably.  I guess you can quesiton if she's had the rivals that prior players have had; or, you could say, she's been so dominant no one could match her.  As the money in tennis keeps going up over time, and training and medicine improve, I find it hard to believe that the overall quality of tennis players has dropped.  So I'd say, it's hard to argue she's the best female tennis player ever.

Is she the best woman athlete ever?  Tennis players will tell you, their sports is the most gruelling and requires the most athleticism. It's hard to think of someone who's dominated her sport for as long as she has.  But then again, most womens' sports haven't had the level of professional ranks like tennis, so it's hard to be a woman athlete and "dominant" into your 30s if yo'ure not a golfer or tennis player.

But I guess to me this is the proof:  Who else would you say instead of Serena?  I can't think of anyone, other than maybe tennis players, but since I think she's the greatest of all tennis players that means she has no other rivals from other sports.

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160 IQ

July 9th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^

It's not that hard to beat women when you are a male at birth.  If you study the facts it's really easy to see.  La Verdad.

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vablue

July 9th, 2016 at 11:50 AM ^

I would call her the most accomplished, but greatest athlete is really tough. If for no other reason than how does one define or measure an athlete.

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Roland Deschain

July 9th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^

Is she even the greatest woman's tennis player of all time? I think Navratilova, Evert, and Graff may all have more impressive overall careers than Serena. But, she's pretty damn good and certainly the greatest player in this generation of players.



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Hill Street Blue

July 9th, 2016 at 12:09 PM ^

Multi-sport star, puts her ahead of single sport athletes.  Track & Field (Olympic medals in both), Basketball, Tennis, and of course, Golf.  In Golf, she won 17 straight amateur titles, 82 total tournaments, and every available golf title in the world.

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carolina blue

July 9th, 2016 at 12:17 PM ^

One of the greatest tennis players. But I will never forget when she told the lines person that she would "shove this ball down your fucking throat". I instantly lost all respect for her. Don't ever threaten someone like that. Ever. Insulting, yelling at them, complaining that they are incompetent...ok. But that was waaayyyyyy over the line. Not even the famous hothead McEnroe said stuff like that.



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name redacted

July 9th, 2016 at 1:55 PM ^

I don't think color of her skin has much to do with your obvious hypocrisy.. I think it's simple 'her'. Because she is a girl you are offended she said that, maybe you feel she should act lady like at all times. Or, do you also have no respect for Michael Jordan who has said comparable? Or 2/3rds of the Bad Boys. Or the handful of players IN ANY NFL GAME ANY SUNDAY. You must not have respect for many pro male athletes at all.

Your comment would be comical if it weren't so transparently misogynist.



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Yeoman

July 9th, 2016 at 2:13 PM ^

I don't remember Jordan saying anything like that to a referee. Not saying he didn't, I just don't know anything about it.

It's not common on tennis courts, that's for sure. I've been to a lot of matches, male and female, and haven't seen anything comparable.

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Yeoman

July 9th, 2016 at 2:41 PM ^

To a referee? I've heard worse among players, too, but they usually stop short where the refs are concerned. But I've never been courtside at an NBA game so I don't really know.

At a tennis match, especially on an outer court, you don't need microphones, you can hear everything anyone says (of course it might not be in a language you understand). If anyone ever threatened an official at a match I was at, they didn't do it in English or German.

That there's a difference in accepted decorum between basketball and tennis players shouldn't come as a surprise. The match/game environment's completely different. Imagine a golfer acting like Draymond Green--you think there wouldn't be a scandal, regardless of gender or color?

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name redacted

July 9th, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^

carolina didn't say he lost all respect because she said it to a referee:

"Don't ever threaten someone like that."

He literally said he lost all respect because she she threatended "someone" in the course of a game.  

I loved Jordan, still do, but he was horrible to his opponents and teamates. I'm to going to play Google for you, I think you can figure that out.  Same with 'pick your player' on the Bad Boy Pistons.  The 90's Knicks with Ewing, Starks, Oakley, Mason.. There's plenty of players recounting the NBA in the 80s/90s and what was said on court and in pracitce.  Fire up your google machine or youtube and I guess be prepared to lose respect for a generation of NBA stars.  

I've never been close enough to an NBA game to hear talk like that, but I have the NFL.  "Do it again I'll f**king kill you" is probably one of the most common phrases you'll hear, or "____ I'll f**k you up" .  Honestly 50% of what is said is a threat of phsyical violence.  

 

Do you think caorlina has lost respect for all these people?  Nooooooope.  You really think its just that she said it a linesman?  Psssht.  

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160 IQ

July 9th, 2016 at 3:44 PM ^

She's not a girl. Male hips, male skull, male brow ridge, male sloped forehead, transsexual squished butt. Obvious boy in young photos. Disappears during puberty. Comes back in disguise dreads. And don't even start the race thing as I am African. If he ever births a child I'll eat a lemon. WTA won't do gender testing anymore after they got sued by transsexual Renee Rickard. He was winning tournaments against women at 46 years old, and said if he had played against women in his younger years he would have never lost.

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WorldwideTJRob

July 9th, 2016 at 6:10 PM ^

When players yell at the ref and get T'd up what the hell do you think they're yelling at him about? Most say unpleasant things, hence the reason they have a metric in place to keep them in order. If you don't like her then that's fine but that's seems pretty weak to me if that's the only thing you can find to knock her about.



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drjaws

July 9th, 2016 at 12:57 PM ^

Babe by a landslide. Anyone who says it isn't her because of who she played against or there weren't many women blah blah ...... you're so wrong it's stupid.

"fellow Texan, the great golfer Byron Nelson, once said that he knew of only eight men who could outdrive her."

She kicked men and women's asses on the regular.



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jblaze

July 9th, 2016 at 12:58 PM ^

Brian, can I ask why a thread like this or a rich guy boating thread is fine but anything addressing the racial issues that out black athletes face is not allowed?

I have completely agreed with your no politics stance, but c'umon man.

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Noleverine

July 9th, 2016 at 2:02 PM ^

MGoBlog is an escape from all that shit going on in the world. We're all aware that we're in a point of transition in our country. We get it everywhere we turn. TV, radio, conversations, Facebook, Twitter, even fucking snapchat. MGoBlog is a place where we can go to NOT think about how fucked everything is. If you wanna talk about that stuff, go to CNN, Fox, or whatever echo chamber you want. I'm going to be here, arguing about whether Serena Williams is GOAT for a few minutes before I'm inundated with depressing, horrifying news for the rest of my day. I get where you're coming from, but I think sanctuaries are few and far between, and I couldn't be more grateful that Brian maintains MGoBlog as one.

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Sopwith

July 9th, 2016 at 6:39 PM ^

Look for a de facto "purge" thread where all posts are legal and this site goes from being Singapore to being Somalia for 12 hours. The moms allow this once in a while for reasons unknown, probably because they have lives beyond MGoBlog, as ridiculous as that sounds. The last one was the awesomely purge-y Brexit cage match thread that had about 20 sub-discussions of race, immigration, social/economic trends, and chat re: various politicians near and far, especially of the orange variety. It went on for hundreds of posts without ever getting pulled or ever veering off politics. 

Once a year is probably about all this community can survive, though. Especially if MGoBlog ever goes open carry.

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