Serena Williams is leaving little doubt that she will finish her career as the greatest women’s tennis player of all time.
The woman aiming for history — a calendar grand slam — at the U.S. Open, which starts Monday, has built such a resume that the debate, it seems, no longer is about Williams’ place in her sport.
It’s whether she is history’s greatest female athlete.
But how does one decipher whether Williams’ reign is superior to Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s in track, Babe Didrikson Zaharias’ in whichever sport she tried, Mia Hamm’s in soccer and so on?
“She is certainly right up at the head of the list,” Anne Cribbs, a former Olympic gold medal swimmer, said about Williams. “I don’t know whether you can go as far as to say the greatest female athlete in all sports because there have been some amazing athletes.”
Twelve months ago, on the eve of Williams winning her sixth U.S. Open singles championship, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan posed the greatest athlete question in a column about Williams.
Brennan noted Williams’ longevity as a premier player and the competitiveness of women’s tennis to state her case.
“It’s the most competitive sport women play, with stellar athletes coming out of the woodwork all over the globe, something that just doesn’t happen (at least not yet) in most women’s sports,” Brennan wrote.
Williams went on to win that 2014 U.S. Open and then three more major singles crowns in 2015 to hold all four major championships for the second time.
If she wins the U.S. Open, she will be the first to claim the four majors — Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open — in the same calendar year since Steffi Graf did so 27 years ago.
“Approaching her 34th birthday and to not only be No. 1 but to be so dominant a No. 1 — the gap between her and No. 2 is a canyon — that’s unprecedented,” said longtime sports broadcaster Ted Robinson, who has covered many of Williams’ victories.
There is no question that Williams’ legacy — learning the game from her father, alongside her older sister, Venus, on public courts in Compton to reign atop the sport — will carry on for as long as there are nets and rackets.
But differentiating between superstars in tennis and soccer, basketball and figure skating, track and field and swimming, golf and softball is like comparing “apples and oranges,” said Tara VanDerveer, Stanford’s women’s basketball coach.
VanDerveer added that Williams’ “mental toughness is pretty much unmatched in how she is able to come out and focus and be so dedicated and so hungry.”
If the criteria for a great athlete are strength, quickness and agility, Williams has the bases covered — and a little more.
“She refuses to lose,” former player Mary Joe Fernandez said.
When Sports Illustrated for Women compiled an all-century list 15 years ago, it took into account on-field performance and contributions to women’s sports.
Billie Jean King, long remembered for her landmark “Battle of the Sexes” triumph over Bobby Riggs in 1973, was the highest-ranked tennis player, at No. 3. Joyner-Kersee was the publication’s athlete of the century, followed by Didrikson Zaharias.
Joyner-Kersee won six medals (three gold) as a heptathlete and long jumper at four Olympics from 1984-96. Didrikson Zaharias won Olympic gold medals in the hurdles and javelin and a silver in the high jump at the Los Angeles Games in 1932. She also was an All-American in basketball and won 48 tournaments as professional golfer.
But for as much buzz that “all-time best” lists generate, former soccer star Brandi Chastain does not believe they are fair.
“In a way it almost degrades those people who don’t get on the list because you have to have only five and everyone’s opinion will be different,” Chastain said. “How do compare a Wilma Rudolph with Babe Didrikson? How do you compare Billie Jean to Mia Hamm? Or Sheryl Swoopes to Margaret Court? The times are different. The circumstances are different. What they personally were up against is different.”
Ernestine Miller, who wrote a book titled, “Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women’s Sports,” said it is impossible to rank athletes from different eras, including athletes from the same sport.
“It’s just like comparing Derek Jeter to Babe Ruth,” Miller said. “Every era has its unique stars that push the sport forward and were significant in their time for what they achieved. You go back to Maureen Connolly (in the 1950s), she only played with wood rackets. You can’t rank Serena Williams with Maureen Connolly, who was the first grand slam winner.”
ESPN analyst Pam Shriver, whose 19 years as a pro spanned the eras of greats such as Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Graf, steered away from the all-time female athlete debate, noting that she had not done enough research. But she has elevated Williams to all-time greatest women’s tennis player.
Shriver mentioned the length of Williams’ reign — she won her first major at 17 — and her achievements in doubles and as an Olympian. Williams has four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in doubles.
“Nobody ever says she is the greatest ever singles player; they say she is the greatest ever tennis player,” Shriver said. “I fold the entire body of work, and in my mind she is the greatest ever.”
Cribbs said she is amazed by Williams’ ability to stay mentally sharp after so much time in the game.
“What people don’t think of very often is it’s really hard to keep that focus,” said Cribbs, who competed in the 1960 Olympics. “I think that’s what people, at least in the swimming world, are so intrigued about with Michael Phelps and his trying to go back to Rio. It’s a long time and mentally challenging to keep your game sharp. It’s one thing to stay in shape. But it’s another thing to really be ready to go mentally. You have to applaud her for that. It’s pretty incredible.”
And as the years move along, Williams keeps adding to her list of achievements. She has 21 major singles championships, one behind Open-era leader Graf, and 36 major titles overall, including doubles and mixed doubles, most among active players of either gender.
Whether Williams is the greatest female athlete “is a huge, huge question and honor that is a long conversation that needs a lot of thought,” said Robinson, the sports broadcaster. “But she is absolutely the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, in my view. What she has done the last two years has cemented that.”
Follow Darren Sabedra on Twitter at twitter.com/DarrenSabedra.
