Serena Williams lifted yet another Grand Slam at All England Club on 9th July 2016. After the match, I had a Skype call with one of my IIT mates, another sport junkie, now settled in US. He was overwhelmed, exuberant and was in awe of Serena. He pronounced “SERENA WILLIAMS is greatest sportsperson of all time”. “You must be kidding” was my immediate reaction as this statement looked to me an extreme hyperbole and an impulsive reaction.
There were reasons to rebut his claim. It is about greatest sportsperson of all times after all and have a look the heavyweights, Serena competes with. Charismatic footballer Pele & Maradona, Michael Phelps – ace swimmer the man with 22 Olympic medals (18 Gold Medals), Rocky Marciano- undefeated boxer during his whole career, Mohammad Ali – cult boxing champion, Usain ‘Lighting’ Bolts – a super human sprinter, Larisa Latynina – legendary Soviet Gymnast with 18 Olympic medals including nine Gold Medals, Carl Lewis – man with nine Olympic Gold Medals in Athletics, NBA stars Wilt Chamberlin & Michael Jordan, magnetic golfer Tiger Woods and many more.
Looked implausible at first look. However my scornfulness towards my friend’s claim was short lived. After just a little pondering, I realized that my friend’s claim actually had substantial merit. The deeper analysis shows that Serena Williams is coveted contender for the title of greatest ever sportsperson of all times, all sports.
Notwithstanding this, the fact remains that this discussion is highly subjective. There is no definite thumb rule or any mathematical model to gauge greatness. It is not an easy task to even compare sportspersons within same sport, particularly from different playing era.
Experts keep on grapple that who is greatest footballer of all times, Pele, Maradona or Messi. On the same line, are we unanimous on who has been the greatest fast bowler of all times? Not at all, different people will have different opinion.
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Then imagine how daunting it would be to compare sportsperson across the sports and that too from different era. Who can pick and tell that whether winning four consecutive Olympic Gold Medals in Long Jump by Carl Lewis is bigger achievement or five consecutive Wimbledon titles of Roger Federer is? Sachin’s 100 international centuries was bigger task to achieve or whether it was thousand plus goals by the great Brazilian Pele?
So coming back to Serena, look at her achievements in a glance. She won her first Grand Slam in 1999 (US Open). Till now she has won 22 Grand Slam single titles, tied with Steffi Graf in open era. Among men, Roger Federer leads the table with 17 Grand Slam. There was a gap of 12 years between first and last Grand Slam of Steffi Graf (1987-1999). In case of Serena, it is 17 years (1999-2016). It may conjure an argument that Steffi Graf performed better at Grand Slams than Serena Williams because Steffi maintained a better strike rate in winning Grand Slam than Serena and also Steffi Graf won calendar Grand Slam in 1988 whereas Serena could never clinched a calendar Grand Slam.
However here comes the counter-argument. Serena maintained the Grand Slam winning form for a much longer period than Steffi Graf and though a calendar year Slam kept her eluding, the fact is that at two different occasions Serena had held all four Grand Slams at same time (2002-03, 2014-15). There can be many more arguments and many more dimensions to this discussions, but overall statistics suggests that Serena is all time greatest Tennis player, quite unequivocally I believe.
So what is that which makes Serena a contender for greatest ever sportsperson, all sports? Do we have strong arguments behind this claim? I would say yes and there are primarily four factors.
Serena excelled in a game, which has a truly pan-global appeal (that’s why cricketers are out of this race). Unarguably Tennis is one of the most popular games across the globe.
The ATP tour and associated players are among the most popular sportspersons with huge fan following. Tennis is being played and followed in all six continents with much fanfare.
Second factor is that Serena represents an individual sport and that too a game as magnificent as Tennis is. Since margin for error in an individual sports is much less than the team game, Serena deserves extra points. Moreover Tennis is magnificent combination of athleticism, physical strength and playing skills. The skill set required to become a tennis player is far more inclusive than most of the other sports.
Third and the most important factor is the longevity. Serena scored heavily on this parameter and compensate for any other possible weak point in a career which otherwise is magnificent. It is almost unbelievable to maintain winning spree at the summit for 17 years in an individual sports (in this case it is gap between first and last Grand Slam). As mentioned above Steffi maintained this for 12 years and so did great Martina Navratilova.
Look at this data for other greats of the game. Roger Federer –9 years, Andre Agassi, & Pete Sampras– 12 years. Serena is the only Tennis player till date who won 10 Grand Slams each in two different decades.
17 years is long period, long enough to witness almost one full generation change. In today’s world, when game, playing style, sports technology evolve thick and past, Serena maintained the champion status across almost two generations, which is phenomenal and one of its kind to say the least. It is a challenge to maintain motivation level & concentration for close to decades, let alone the physical fitness.
It remains an arguable question that whether Serena’s credential are good enough to coronate her undisputed all-time greatest sportsperson but for sure she is seriously in the fray. As a last argument, since Serena is still going strong and there is no sign of palpable fatigue as yet, she may become undisputed greatest ever in couple of years’ time. Let’s wait and watch.
(The author is NewsMobile iJourno)