Ladies Final

Sharapova's will to win frightens me sometimes. I don't like her game but Christ is she determined.

She's red lining it here.

2nd serve aces.

Even Serena is serving pretty hard.

I think that 'Come On' was justified

Women's tennis is so predictable. So easy for Williams ! Standard appalling when you think of the rallies Novak and rafa were having yesterday after 4 hours.

South Africa is playing a World Cup Qualification match today, I dont particularly think we will win it, but I'm heading to the pub anyway, I completely expect MaSha to have been bagelled at some point when I return..

6-4, 6-4 it was KR. Not bad. MaSha's nerves got in the way of a third set. Last Women's three setter is 2001 Clijsters v Capriati.

I know it doesn't belong here but does this doubles final go to a tiebreak at 6-6?

Was quite off with my predictions, LF. South Africa won 3-0 and Sugapova won four games.

64 64 and Williams wasn't even out of 3rd gear, scary stuff for all the WTA. If she brings her A game every other woman is looking at bagels and breadsticks.

This must be the best run of form I've seen from Serena.

So powerful from both corners and in the middle, gets to drops shots and quick to overheads.

Unbeatable at the moment.

How much of Serena's dominance do we think is down to skill and technique and how much is due to her massively superior strength?

Both IMO, don't forget she also plays with a lot more variety than her opponents and is an adept doubles player.

Yep ,all round fitness, strength, tactical nous, precision, skills, speed, reaction, stamina, talent, intensity, focus....bla bla bla, the list goes on.

The only time you can beat her is if she beats herself.

I agree with Lydian. She could have done with a Graf/Hingis level quality player to have a rivlary against in the second half of her career.

Since the star of 2009, she has won 7 out of 15 slams entered although I honestly think with better motivation she could have done even better.

By the way, I was my tennis club today for the Wimbledon draw. It was getting close to match point but the noise of the match on TV was stopping people hearing them talking about the Wimbledon draw. So they just turned the match off. No-one was watching avidly, and maybe 2-3 out of 40-50 people in the room were half watching.

It's interesting where we place Serena - simply because the best she's got as a rival is the terrible moving Sharapova

For me she's behind Graf and ahead of Martina (Nav) and Margaret Court

I place Serena behind Graf, Navratilova and Evert still due to the stiffer competition they faced, higher slam and #1 weeks totals. King and Court are behind. Seles is an unknown...we'll never know how many of those mid90s Graf slams/achievements might have gone to her instead...as it was she's still some 40 weeks ahead of Serena at #1. Personally I think her and Graf would have ended up with similar results if not for Hamburg 93.

lydian wrote:I place Serena behind Graf, Navratilova and Evert still due to the stiffer competition they faced, higher slam and #1 weeks totals. King and Court are behind. Seles is an unknown...we'll never know how many of those mid90s Graf slams/achievements might have gone to her instead...

Fair points. It can be argued that there is a question mark against her status as she lost interest around the time when she had some decent compettion

And Henin seem to have her number to a degree

Yep, my word what a talent Henin was for such a diminutive figure.

JubbaIsle wrote:Yep ,all round fitness, strength, tactical nous, precision, skills, speed, reaction, stamina, talent, intensity, focus....bla bla bla, the list goes on.

The only time you can beat her is if she beats herself.

I agree....

Congrats to Serena on her 16th Slam. Just two behind Navratilova and Evert.

I don't think it's fair to compare eras. For example, Evert had one of the weakest second serves in the game, and it would've probably been slaughtered in this era of much better service returns....