How Great Was Serena Williams ACTUALLY? 

The things I’ve seen Serena Williams done on a tennis court will never done again! Simply amazing

The best WTA serve ever, one of the most dangerous returns, both excellent forehand and backhand, immense power, great foot speed, very strong mentally...

Not how good, but how great! Serena is undeniably the best female player of all time. Her biggest weapon (next to her serve) was her mind. She had a champions will and even when she was down facing matchpoints, she'd muster the will and cut you down.

The hate that Serena receives is exhausting. Thinly-veiled racism that uses contemptuous rhetoric to undercut and diminish her achievements while reifying antiquated, narrowing standards of female beauty. Along with her sister, Venus, Serena changed the game and is here to stay in the sports history books. Get over it.

I think the fans and actual former tour players are looking at "the greatest" in 2 different ways. The fans are looking at raw numbers. The actual players are factoring at that person's game. I've watched tennis for the last 35 years and Serena is the most complete women's tennis player that we have seen play. Her forehand wasn't as good as her backhand but it wasn't a weakness and it got better. You really couldn't pick on her forehand. The serve speaks for itself, Her return was always strong and it got better. She volleyed well but she didn't necessarily have to from the baseline. You could tell even from the matches when she was 16-17 that she was going to be win slams. I think her career is marked by resilient/cross-generational peaks that we haven't seen before more than it's marked by dominance from playing a lot of tennis in a condensed 10-15 years.

How many other great tennis players actually won a GS while pregnant? She’s unbelievable!

Serena is actually a six time US Open champion ( 99, 02, 08, 12, 13, 14) and seven Aus Open champion ( 03, 05, 07, 09, 10, 15, 17)

Serena is the GOAT for me.

Nitpicking-- but she actually won 23 doubles titles, in total. 14 major doubles titles. Also 6 USOs, 7 AOs in singles.

He said she had bad sportsmanship but doesn't acknowledge the racism she had to deal with. Even John McEnroe used to complain about the obvious line calls against her. Also, the fake foot faults at the U.S. Open. Nowhere else. I would've been pissed too. Serena has made it easier for Coco and Osaka. They aren't hated like Venus and Serena were in the beginning.

The truth is that calling the GOAT on the women's side is even more difficult than the mens side. not only do you have to consider the era, the competition, which era had more complete athletes, the internet, the state of the WTA tour and player's requirements but you also have consider how many women played doubles while also amassing wins in singles, which is why no matter how many others enter this conversation, Navratilova and Serena will always be a part of it.

4:52 Technically, Serena won four GS during that period. Two in 2003, one in 2005, and one in 2007. Not too shabby.

what website is used at 5:10

Still haven’t decided my goat, it’s hard to compare the best women players didn’t all play at the same time so we will never truly know who the best was. But I can say Srena basically did take over the last two decades and made womens tennis very fun an exciting over here in the States. Wish she was still playing today but we have a new era of rybakina,swiatek, and sabalenka doing very well rn

You do Serena's greatest a disservice by not talking about the racism she has had to overcome. When you talk about mental fortitude, her ability to still be here and be great and BE ALIVE in the face of racism is truly notable.

Steffi is the GOAT. Most impressive career of any woman and no significant player has a winning record against her.

Probably one of Americas most prolific athletes I'm from the uk and can acknowledge how great she is

If I put them on the court in their primes. The only reason my money would be on Serena is because she would hold her serve everytime. Those aces in clutch moments would take the game from Steffi and Martina.

2003-2007 2003 Wimbledon Champion 2005 Australian Open Champion 2007 Australian Open Champion

She's amazing.

No one outside the USA thinks that Serena (!) is GOAT. Steffi or Court, maybe even Navratilova - but certainly not Serena.😂

Serena is the best female athlete EVER

Yes Serena is the best,I love Serena and l miss her game ❤.

Hope you can do Venus Williams next.

Good net play? must be joking, so many akward net shots and like most women players she prefers hitting drive volleys rather than natural volleys, see Justine Henin or any pre 2000's top female player for good net play. She had non existent dropshots and deep slices, and was kinda slow running foward compared to modern players(Dementieva,Jankovic,Kerber,Radwanska,Iva etc etc). The thing that seperated her from the others was indeed the serve and huge returns(and using the fact for many women holding a serve is harder than breaking a serve so she destroyed those 160km first serves and 110km second serves without any kick on them) And she was kinda lucky, Henin and Clijsters and Venus were holding quite well with her until 2010, 2 of them retired too soon

1. Serena Williams 2. Martina Navratilova 3. Steffi Graf 4. Chris Evert 5. Margaret Court

It took her having a baby at 35 for the rest of the tour to catch her otherwise she'd easily passed Court.

6X US Open 7X Australian Open.

2012 she hit 102 aces not 85

there's mistake 6 UO and 7 AO, not the opposite

I am not a big fan of Serena Williams but u have to give credit where it is due. SW was unbelievable outstanding. Her passion was crazy. SW was more crazy than any tennis player on the planet...I could go on and on...but she was great... players were beaten before they come on the court....

During her prime, she obviously overpowered the women's game save very few players who could hit with her like Clisters or crafty players who could change speed and throw her timing off.

GOAT

According to most polls Steffi Graf is the greatest ever. However, Serena has some support at least in her home country. Outside of the USA not so much….

Very very great

Margaret Court: 24 grand slam singles, 21 mixed double grand slams, 19 doubles grand slams, TOTAL 64. Court played just 15 years of tennis pro and was a mother. Court has 192 singles titles. Career winning is 91%. Serena Williams: 23 grand slam singles, 2 mixed double grand slams, 14 doubles grand slams, TOTAL 39. Serena played 27 years of tennis pro and was also a mother. Serena has 73 singles titles. Career winning is 86%. WE ALL KNOW WHO THE GOAT IS. MARGARET COURT - see above if you have any questions.

One measure of how good / great you are is how you treat colleagues such as umpires and referees. No excuses.

she is the greatest of all time. the best it is, the it was and the that will ever be.

To me Serena is the GOAT however I'm not going into the GOAT debate, everyone is entitled to their own conclusion. I'd just like to point out a couple of things: i think people sometimes look at tennis in the wrong way. Serena suffered many times critical conditions (whether they being injuries or heavier ones like embolism, giving birth and so on... and I'd put losing a sister in there) plus she had to endure a LOT on and off the court: steffi was always the cute blond girl while Serena was the "black male pretending to be a woman" (one example being the Indian Wells situation which prevented her from doing the sunshine double quite a lot of times). Steffi's record is impressive: 22 GS in 12 years. Astonishing. But let's not forget that she lost Seles on the way which eventually might have prevented her from reaching those 22 in such short time. If Serena didn't have Venus (one of many) she would have 4 to 5 GS more. All this to say that history isn't made by ifs, but tennis sometimes is much more that simple stats and that's why is not possible to compare different eras (people are already comparing, for example, Swiatek to Serena and don't get me started on that...)

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Serena is GOAT 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

She is the greatest

Look at them biceps.

We already know that she is the greatest to black people, but to whites she will never stand out simply because she is black, with a dominant power.

6 US, and 7 AO

serena is the greatest of all time. She has the most gs wins of any player in the open era and most certainly would've beat margaret court's record if she didn't get sick in 2011. She is also the ONLY player to have a golden slam in doubles and singles. She really is the greatest, male or female.

No from 2003 to 2007 she won 2slams 05 aus and 07 aus

I'm a massive Serena Williams fans. It's not as straight forward question. One off the greatest yes. When Serena was focused and determind on tennis then she was unbeatable. She only one 73 titles. Then you have Steffi Graf, 107 titles, ONLY player to have won the calender year golden Slam. Was totally focused on tennis. Martina Navratilova has won most singles titles, 9 wimbledons (six of those title consecutivly.) Only playear have won ever grand slam title title in singles, doubles and mixed. 74 match winning streak. Chris Evert Should be mentioned in the greatest ever female tennis player. Only player to hammer Martina Navratilova 6/0/60. Greatest clay court women's tennis 120+ consecutive wins on clay spanning 6 years. One thing Serena has over EVERYONE her Serve was stunning

when she was at her peak she was unplayable basically

With all respect to Serena, I don’t understand why Steffi Graf doesn’t get more support as the GOAT. She has Serena beat in just about every statistical category except one less major and she retired at only 29. I am not saying Steffi was better I just don’t see why people are so conclusive without looking at the data.

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QUEEN Serena - The Greatest!!!

No female can compete with the beast.💯👍

The greatest in tantrums of all time in the WTA. They should name a stadium at the USOPEN after all her tantrums she had at the slam through her career.

I liked serena, I just hated her screaming

Honestly, it's love and fear that kept her from #24.

Steffi is the GOAT. She has the best resume. If we add singles & doubles then it's Martina Navratilova. Of course Margaret Court won 64 combined slams but the competition level was low.

Just think if she played during the time she missed and was healthy. She would have won 30 plus slams

Serena is the best greatest female player of the 21st C. but not all time! The edge goes to Graf with her ridiculous resume that Serena doesn't come close to! However Court & Navratilova are in the convo! The Golden Slam has never been achieved by anyone - male or female except Graf!

Maybe she get your facts straight before producing a video

She was so great she could fight with Godzilla and eventually win a set.

She had a baby during the on season? The way her body looks I'm surprised she still had her period during on season.

I always what could've been if she decided to have children at a later date. She was never the same after the pregnancy - but regardless, I love her for it.

She was a great player who played in an era with very few other great players that let her pile up majors. If you rank the top 10 women players of all time, for instance, Serena never had to play any of them in any of her majors. Martina and Chris and sure did! It's a question that can never be answered as to who was the greatest - but by match/title wins it would be Martina or Chris - who have WAY more tournaments won than Serena. ( by a lot ). As to her athletic prowess so many are stunned by consider this - at age 49 Martina won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title. 49! At age 49 Serena will weigh 250 pounds and be on a couch somewhere.

Serena could win GS in the ATP circuit beating Federer….easily!😊

SHE IS WITHOUT A DOUBT THE GREATEST, THE ONLY REASON SHE TOOK LONGER IS BECAUSE SHE HAD A LIFE OUTSIDE OF TENNIS WHICH IS WHY SHE WAS ABLE TO TAKE HER TIME. HER ERA WAS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF PRAYERS NOW COMPARED TO BBACK THEN PLUS NONE HAD TO DEAL WITH RACISM, DEATH THREATS ETC. THAN SHE AND HER SISTER AND AS FOR MARGARET COURT MOST OF HER WINS WERE IN AUSTRALIA AT A TIME WHEN MOST PLAYERS DIDNT GO BECAUSE OF THE LONNNG BOAT RIDE AND NOT ALL HER WINS WERE IN THE OPEN ERA.

Serena williams is far superior than graf or Martina

Not was. It should be how great is…

Steffi Graf was way better: She had a 17-year career (Serena had 25). During which: - She took 22 titles in 13 years (Serena took 23 in 19) - She reached all 4 GS finals 3 times (Serena never did) - She won 3+ GS titles in 5 different years (Serena did it twice) - And of course the big one - THE GOLDEN SLAM. Monica Seles had a clear potential (8 GS titles before her 20th birthday), but her career was cut short by a saboteur, so we'll never know the answer to who's really THE GOAT in women's Tennis. But the real reason - no matter how accomplished - why "GREAT" will never be appropriate, is Serena's ARROGANCE. Her post-match interview, one match from retirement at Wimbledon last year, was absolutely DISGUSTING 🤢🤮

Complete lack of class and awful sportsmanship disqualify her from being greatest at anything. As for overall tennis performance, Steffi Graf remains the women's GOAT based on ELO.. 2nd greatest is Martina Navratilova.

she was great no denying but by no statistical definition is she number one of all time as she didn't have as many weeks at number 1 as graf not number one in slams wins or match wins or weeks at number 1 and some of her best competition clisters, hingis, capriati henin all retired prematurely. Martina N won more than a 100 more tournaments in singles than serena. It is recency bias to say she is GOAT she is in conversation but certainly others can make claim as well.

Not so sure who the goat was. Only sure it definitely wasn't Williams. See below post.

Not as great as Steffi Graff.

Steffi Graff is the real goat

She has bad attitude. She has no chance to beat Swaitek

Serena took roids like it was nothing

Serena was a great tennis player. However, in my opinion she won the majority of her wins in her last 5 years simply because she was stronger than her opponents and outweighed them by at least 50 lbs.

She's ungrateful. I'll say that.

Never a big fan of her. She looked and played too much as a man. Also hard to look at her and those awful outfits she wore . Only thing I give her credit for was that she played very well considering her body was obese. She berated lines people . Not the goat. Margaret Court, Martina, Chris, Maria, Monica all wonderful Champions. Williams, not so much

not sure about great , but she was biiiiiig

Not a she

Margaret Court won 24 single grand slams..more than Serena....why all this fuss about Serena? Steffi Graph won 22...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Court_career_statistics