Many think that Roger Federer is the tennis player who connects past, present and future. If this is true, as far as men’s singles are concerned, I believe that the real tennis player who connects the past tennis Eras with the current tennis and the tennis of the future is Serena Williams.
Meanwhile the American won the years after last time a title, at the Auckland International., but she was eliminated in the third round of the Australian Open 2020. Serena has shown during her long career that she was competitive in both women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
She won 23 titles in women’s singles, 14 in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles, to which must be added the gold medal in women’s singles at the 2012 London Olympics and those in women’s doubles got at 2000, 2008 and 2012 Olympics with his sister Venus.
Serena is a complete tennis player, who can be compared to the great tennis players of the past, such as Suzanne Lenglen, Margaret Osborne DuPont, Helen Wills Moody, Billie Jean King, Margaret Smith and Martina Navrátilová.
All of whom are players who were competitive in all specialities. In modern tennis a player becomes able to specialize in either men’s / women’s singles or men’s / women’s doubles and mixed doubles. It is difficult to see a player able to reconcile different specialities and even the Big Three of this era were unable to do so: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic founded their career on men’s singles.
Margaret Smith leads this ranking with a total of 64 Slams. Martina Navratilova follows with 59, then Serena Williams and Billie Jean King with 39 total Slams. So it is clear that Serena Williams is the true tennis player who embodies the spirit of past tennis, present tennis and future tennis (Charles Dickens’ quotes apart).
She is the true heir of her predecessors, with an ability to be competitive in all specialities. A success that not even the Big Three have achieved.
