By Hudson Avery

Photo credit: Carl De Souza/Pool/Getty Images.

Is Serena Williams the best tennis player in the world? This is a question that appears frequently in the tennis world and has been talked about around the world a great deal lately. Williams recently announced that she would be retiring from playing professional tennis. After losing to Australia’s Ajila Tomljanović in the third round of the U.S. Open in New York on September 2, she finally called it quits. This was not shocking to a majority of tennis fans, because Williams has been playing professional tennis for over 27 years and turned 41 this September. Her accomplished and unforgettable career coming to an end has brought up the question of whether or not she is the best ever. Oftentimes, people will only compare Williams to other great female tennis players, but there is really no other female tennis player who can compare to the number of accomplishments that Williams attained throughout her career.

Williams at the French Open in 2013. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons user Yann Caradec.

There is also no other female tennis player in history who has had such a long and successful career like hers, except perhaps Margaret Court, who won 24 major singles titles between 1960 and 1975, which is one more than Williams’s 23 major singles titles. Although Court won more singles titles, there is no denying that she played during a time where competition wasn’t considered to be as elite as the competition that Williams played against. The lack of elite competition at some of these titles played a major role in Court’s dominant performance throughout most of her career. The different eras in which these two tennis hall of famers played makes it almost impossible to compare the two.

Williams has also been compared to the greats of men’s tennis. Some of the elite men players she commonly gets compared to include Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer, who also just retired. These are often considered to be three of the greatest male tennis players of all time. Even though she has some records that rival some of the records set by these players, and some records that might surpass a few of the records held by these men, these comparisons are challenging because of the differences between mens and womens tennis.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons user Yann Caradec.

One example of the differences between women’s and men’s tennis is the average speed of a first serve. The tempo of how men’s tennis is played and how women’s tennis is played is sometimes quite different. The average first serve speed of a professional woman’s player is usually around 105 mph, and the average serve for a professional men’s player is around 120 mph. Faster serves make it harder to return and make the game more stressful on the body. This was something that Williams struggled with throughout most of her career, but especially closer to the end of her career. Women also play a best-of-three sets format in Grand Slam tournaments, while the men play best-of-five. 

Collegiate varsity tennis player Drew Atiyeh (‘23) reflected on the impact Williams had on the sport, “I think Serena definitely changed the game,” and “she became the new standard of what young girls playing tennis needed to beat… I would consider her to be one of the best tennis women players of all time.” However, Atiyeh believes Serena’s accomplishments do not rank her above top men in the sport: “I would not say she is the greatest player of all time… [but] she is a very accomplished women’s player.” It is clear, however, that there have been many memorable moments throughout her career that represent how she is a legend in the tennis world. 

Varsity girls tennis player Malone Morchower (‘23) describes Williams’ influence on and off the court: “She has influenced my game. I saw her play in the U.S. Open in 2019, and she serves as a reminder to me to swing through my shots, because she always does and never pushes the ball. She stays aggressive and confident, even if she is down in a match, and always plays her game, and not her opponent’s game. She sticks to what works for her and always is on the offensive side rather than the defensive because of her style of play.” 

There is undoubtedly no one else in the history of women’s tennis who has been able to make such an impact on the sport the way Williams has. She has also become an important celebrity off the court and has brought exposure and prestige to all women’s sports.