The Aussie Open

OK, fine. My comment at the top the page was catty and unfair; she's fit, as the photo shows.

But I still wouldn't list her among the all-time greats. I wouldn't put Nadal there, either, and he's almost matched her record already.
 
Absolutely she would, despite her well-documented fitness struggles, but I suck.

"One of the biggest comebacks in sports history?" That's a teensy bit of a stretch, isn't it?
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It's okay, she'd kick my arse and your arse at the same time !

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No way ! Incredible story of a true champion. How can you read her story and not say

Wow. Incredible. It is because of her comeback she is even in Tennis MAgs Top 40 EVER list.

She was done. She was written off and retired and a used to be never was. She comes back after 3 years, and then doesn't even win a tourney until 3 years after comeing back and then beats Number 1 Player in the World Hingis at the Aussie ?

Sheeeeeeeesssseee

You know the story ! A truly great sports comeback.
 
John_Hudson said:
It's okay, she'd kick my arse and your arse at the same time !

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No way ! Incredible story of a true champion. How can you read her story and not say

Wow. Incredible. It is because of her comeback she is even in Tennis MAgs Top 40 EVER list.

She was done. She was written off and retired and a used to be never was. She comes back after 3 years, and then doesn't even win a tourney until 3 years after comeing back and then beats Number 1 Player in the World Hingis at the Aussie ?

Sheeeeeeeesssseee

You know the story ! A truly great sports comeback.
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She made a comeback, which is great for her. The problem is "one of the greatest combacks in sports history."

It's hard for me to go along with that when the same sport had a truly great comeback story going on at the same time.

Agassi. He was written off himself, and at the time, I never would have missed him. Couldn't STAND him in his early years. But he MADE me respect him when he came back, and his record speaks for itself -- 8 slams, 7 runner-ups, World #1 six times and held it for a year at one point, Olympic Gold, ITF champ, etc., etc.

No, he didn't go as far out as Capriati did, but he was on his way.

Just for comparison.

Sorry; I just disagree. I'm not a Cap fan.
 
David Jimerson said:
OK, fine. My comment at the top the page was catty and unfair; she's fit, as the photo shows.

But I still wouldn't list her among the all-time greats. I wouldn't put Nadal there, either, and he's almost matched her record already.
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I would not put Nadal among the all time greats anymore than I would any other Clay Court Specialist; he still has some proven to do

But JCap ? Totally !


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On a liner note:

Tell ya what; if there is any girl that can beat down Serena Williams; it's her.

In 7 Grand Slams:

Jen beat her 4 times. We need her to come back now !

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Her consistency issues were either a product of her childhood or injury, no her as a player. I can think of the best example of inconsistent:

Andre Agassi

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Liner Note 2

In my daily research I discovered, that although Wilander never won Wimby; he did win the Aussie on grass. Making him one of very few players to win Grand Slams on all surfaces (Rearranging my Top 10)
 
John_Hudson said:
But this should not taint the unbiased opinion !
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I wouldn't put Davenport there, either, and she has a nearly identical record (but with some GRASS in the slams).


Court, King, Navratilova, Graf, Evert . . .

Capriati?

Davenport?

Those names just don't belong there. Do they? Unbiased?
 
That's the company I'm referring to when I talk about "the all-time greats." There's quite a list in between those five and Capriati/Davenport, too.
 
Barry_Green said:
Or Sampras stopping the match in the middle of a 5th-set tiebreaker(!) so he could barf his guts out (!!!), then CONTINUING TO PLAY, and WINNING. Then immediately checking into the hospital for an intravenous treatment for dehydration. Then coming back to win the entire tournament (the 1996 US Open) by blitzing Michael Chang in straight sets.
http://www.geocities.com/hovav13/art-Sampras_survives_Corretja.html

Gotta love Federer, but Sampras is still the greatest to ever play the game. So far.
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That's championship mettle.

Though to be fair, at Wimby '99, Sampras was very much in the process of having his lunch fed to him by Flip, and then Flip defaulted on a knee injury.
 
Completely agree Dave !

I'd still Rank her in my All Time List though factoring in the comeback.

This is not my all time list; but a list of womens Grand Slam Champions (Slams won in parenthesis)

1. (24) Margaret Smith Court 2. (22) Steffi Graf 3. (19) Helen Wills Moody 4. (18) Chris Evert (Lloyd) 4. (18) Martina Navratilova 6. (12) Billie Jean King 7. (9) Maureen Connolly 7. (9) Monica Seles 9. (8) Suzanne Lenglen 9. (8) Serena Williams 11. (7) Maria Bueno 11. (7) Evonne Goolagong (Cawley) 13. (6) Margaret Osborne duPont 14. (5) Althea Gibson 14. (5) Justine Henin-Hardenne 14. (5) Martina Hingis 14. (5) Venus Williams ---

With 4

Sanchez Viccario, Shirely Fry in the 50's, Mandlíková ..

With 3

Wade, Capriati, Davenport, Jones, Haydon ..
 
WILANDER!!???

Give that guy some coke and he'll pretty much tell you anything. A couple of years ago during the Olympics he said that Thomas Berdych would be better than Roger Federer in two years. How'd that turn out?

Sampras' serve was great, no doubt. It was so good, in fact, that he never lost serve, which gave him a chance in every single set he played. The thing is, it hid his deficiencies (a backhand that would fold under pressure - a continental grip forehand that would waiver if you got it to him high - not enough people attacked this).

If I were to compare the two:

Serve - Sampras
Forehand - Federer
Backhand - Federer
Forehand Volley - Even
Backhand Vollyey - Federer
Overhead - Sampras
Return - Federer
Quickness - Federer
Mental Game - Federer (by a slim margin)
Staminia - Federer
Strategy - Federer
Offense - Sampras
Defense - Federer
Hardcourt - Even
Grass - Even
Clay - Federer
 
Oh, right . . . and Cliff Drysdale's unassailable. :-Laugh(DBG):

Like I said, Wilander was shown to be right. Nadal seems to be the only one who can challenge Federer, but when he does, Federer gets whiny about it and folds.
 
John_Hudson said:
This is not my all time list; but a list of womens Grand Slam Champions (Slams won in parenthesis)
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Meh. Give Serena four more years and she'll top that list. She just has to win all four, four years in a row. :thumbsup:
 
My pick for the mens final is of course Federer but Gonzalez has played some great tennis, I think Federer will have to work for everything - in contrast to the Williams walkover.
 
But remember who Williams walked over. This isn't some unranked newbie -- she put the smackdown on Maria Sharapova, the #1 player in the world. When Federer pasted Roddick, that was #1 against #6, with #1 winning. But when Serena waxed Maria, that was #81 slaughtering #1, arguably even more thoroughly than what Federer did to Roddick.

Forget Gonzalez, let Serena play Roger... heh.
 
Serena could not beat the number 500 men's player in the world.

I'm actually kind of disappointed that the williams sisters shied away from McEnroe's challenge a few years back that he could beat them. I personally think he would've, but I guess in retrospect, the williams had nothing to gain and everythng to lose. Still, that would've easily been the most interesting tennis match in 25 years and could've really drummed up some interest in tennis - a sport whose popularity is dying daily.
 
I'm going to bet Serena could beat the #500 man.

Not going to say how far up the chain she could go, but #500? Yeah.
 
1st set, 5-4, 40-15 Gonzalez.

As soon as the point started, I knew Gonzalez would lose the match. Up to that ooint he had a shot. But the second that point started, he was dead. Why? He didn't play to win the point. He played for Federer to lose it. And Federer is not going to lose a big point. You have to earn it from him. In addition to that, Gonzalez played the exact opposite of Gonzalez in that point. Pushing.

He dug his grave right then and there.
 
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