Serena: Just How Great Is She?

Serena Williams just completed her 2nd "Serena Slam", and has to be considered a heavy favorite going into the US Open at the end of August.  She is currently dominating the sport of tennis in a way no other athlete in all of sports is able to do.  In fact, she is only one Grand Slam title away from tying Steffi Graf for most in the modern era. So, I thought to myself the other night, who are two other dominant modern athletes that we can compare her to?  From that, I got to thinking about why she is dominating tennis like she is.  Is she on top because she is simply able to raise her game above the level of her excellent competition, or is she the best because her competition really isn't that good, and she is just so far ahead of them it isn't fair?

The all-time great dominant athletes that I think Serena can be compared to are 1990s Michael Jordan and 1999-2002 Tiger Woods.  The interesting thing about these comparisons is that, usually, an all-time great tends to fall back to the pack as they get older.  With Serena, it is the exact opposite.  When she began her career, there was legitimate competition that she couldn't always beat.  Remember, while Serena was the first of the two to win a Grand Slam title, it was Venus Williams who first took the tennis world by storm with her power and athleticism.  After Serena's win in the 1999 US Open, she didn't win another til 2002. Serena took a bit longer to blossom fully, and had some serious competition to deal with.

Much like Michael Jordan played against a slew of other Hall of Fame players (Ewing, Barkley, Olajuwon, Stockton & Malone), Serena dealt with some great opponents early on.  Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, and Justine Henin all beat Serena and won numerous Grand Slams.  In 2002, however, Serena was able to raise her game and took the 3 final Slams of the year, followed by the Australian Open in 2003, thus completing her 1st Serena Slam.  Much like Jordan, even faced with extremely good competition (particularly from Henin, who owned a 6-6 record against her) Serena was able to win 8 Slams through the end of 2007.

Then, things started to change.  Serena was still an excellent tennis player, but the competition started drying up.  Venus only won 1 more Slam title, at the 2008 Wimbledon.  Henin abruptly took an early retirement to concentrate on other endeavors, despite the fact she was the #1 ranked player in the world. Hingis, Davenport and Capriati retired after successful and long careers.  There was a sudden void for a true rival to Serena.  Even when Maria Sharapova burst on the scene to win the three titles in 5 years, she only beat Serena in one Slam finals.  Furthermore, Sharapova has not beaten Serena in a head to head match since 2005.  Serena owns a record of 18-2 vs the 2nd best player of this generation in Sharapova, who herself has a career Grand Slam.  It was only occasional injuries and illness that kept Serena from advancing deep in Slam tournaments.

It is during this time, from 2008 until now, that we see years similar to the first dominant years of Tiger Woods' career, which is what makes Serena so interesting.  Tiger came onto the PGA Tour and set it ablaze, hitting farther, putting better, and just having an overall game that dominated all comers.  There were some that won majors, sure.  Vijay, Phil, Paddy, Ernie Els:  All of them won a few majors, yet none of them came close to touching Tiger.  Then, over the past few years, Tiger's fallen back to Earth.  This is what happens with phenoms.  The game, the time, and the competition all eventually catch up.  But not Serena.

New tennis players have come and gone.  New challengers have arisen.  Yet Serena Williams is still at the top of her game. She has her 2nd Serena Slam.  She only needs to win the US Open to get a true Grand Slam (all 4 titles in one calendar year).  She is Jordan at his peak.  She is early Tiger.  We are seeing something special on the tennis courts every time she plays.  How great is she?  She may be the greatest of all time.