Why Serena Williams Is Now The Greatest American Tennis Player Ever HD

The US Open (Tennis) (TV Program Creator) Caroline Wozniacki (Celebrity) Caroline Wozniacki 2014 US Open Film (Media Genre) US Open and 18th Grand Slam Title Tennis (Sport) Serena Williams beats Caroline Wozniacki at the US Open Serena Williams Wins Amazing Serena Williams (Tennis Player) Serena Williams Wins 3rd US Open in Row I hope you were paying attention as Serena Williams won her 18th Grand Slam title against Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday’s U.S. Open Ladies Singles Final. Why? Because with that win, Serena Williams became simply the greatest American tennis player ever. Male or female. No asterisks. “I never dreamed that I could be compared to Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova,” Williams said in her post-match press conference. “I was just a kid with a dream and a racket living in Compton.” Here’s how the numbers lay out. With her 18th major, Serena tied Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Evert, for all of her greatness and influence, isn’t quite a match for Serena. She did win her 18 majors in 56 majors for a .321 slam average, one fewer than Serena, whose Slam Average stands at .315. (Slam average can be computed by taking a player’s slam wins and dividing them by the total number of majors in which she competed) But Serena has two important edges—Serena won 13 majors in doubles, compared to only three for Evert. Even more importantly, Evert has been on the short end of a key rivalry. Williams has been the best player in the world for most of the past decade and a half. Her closest rival is either Justine Henin or her sister Venus, each of whom have 11 fewer slams. Evert, for her part, took a back seat to Navratilova, who held an 43-37 edge including a 10-4 in Grand Slam finals. Speaking of Navratilova, she had even more doubles success than Williams, winning 31 titles. But she also took more time to win her 18 singles slams, playing 67 majors in singles for a slam percentage of .268 compared to Serena’s .315. At this moment, Serena’s edge over these other two legends is real, but narrow. If she can continue to play at this level, she’ll widen the gap. Or if her game falls off suddenly, her case for supremacy weakens. As for the Serena vs. the American guys, it’s really no contest. Pete Sampras was great. He won 14 slams in 52 tries for a .269 Slam Average. But Serena’s better. She won a career grand slam, including two French Opens. She’s held all four majors at once for a so-called “Serena Slam.” She won those aforementioned doubles titles. To put this in some perspective, she’s got more singles wins than Jimmy Connors (8) and John McEnroe (7) combined. What makes this exciting is Serena’s uncertain future. Serena’ is approaching 33, and Roger Federer (like Serena herself) has shown just how hard it is to play consistent tennis in the slams after age 30. But her win over Wozniacki proved that she’s the game’s best player, so it would be a surprise (although not a shock) if she didn’t win another slam or two by next y