Mowing them down on the lawn

[Long Run]

By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Tennis Writer

LONDON (AP) — Before Serena Williams moves on from completing a second "Serena Slam" to pursuing tennis' first true Grand Slam in more than a quarter-century, it's worth pausing to appreciate what she's done.

First of all, there are the statistics. And what statistics they are:

— She's won 21 Grand Slam titles; only Steffi Graf, with 22, has more in the Open era of professional tennis (the all-time record is Margaret Court's 24). [and as noted before, Serena has faced much tougher competition overall than Graf and Court]

— Her 6-4, 6-4 victory over Garbine Muguruza in Saturday's final gave Williams six Wimbledon titles [however, Serena was limping to the finish on this one and was assisted by several mistakes by Muguruza in the final game, just to highlight the pressure she is under]; only Martina Navratilova (with nine) and Graf (with seven) have more. Williams also has a half-dozen trophies each from the U.S. Open and Australian Open, along with three from the French Open.

— She's won 28 Grand Slam matches in a row and four consecutive major titles over two seasons, something last done by — guess who? — Williams in 2002-03, when she coined the term "Serena Slam."

— At 33, she is the oldest woman to win a major title in the Open era, nearly a month older than Navratilova was at Wimbledon in 1990.

It's all impressive. And it all helps Williams believe she can continue this remarkable run at the U.S. Open, which begins in late August in New York. A trophy there would give Williams a calendar-year Grand Slam, which no one — not even Roger Federer — has accomplished in tennis since Graf did it in 1988.

Only two other women (Maureen Connolly in 1953, and Court in 1970) and two men (Don Budge in 1938, and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969) have pulled off the feat, and none of them had to deal with the intense media scrutiny of this day and age.

"I feel like I'll be OK. I feel like if I can do the 'Serena Slam,' I will be OK heading into the Grand Slam. Like I always say, 'There's 127 other people that don't want to see me win.' Nothing personal, they just want to win," Williams said, referring to the size of the field at a major tournament. "I had a really tough draw (at Wimbledon). This gives me confidence that if I had this draw, I can do it again. I'll just do the best I can."

Her best is the best there is, and might ever have been [definitely the best, no might about it]. But her story is about so much more than the numbers associated with her greatness. There's the resilience she's shown away from the court, too, dealing with various injuries, none more worrisome than what happened in the aftermath of her 2010 Wimbledon championship.

A few days following that final, Williams cut both feet on broken glass while leaving a restaurant in Germany. She needed two operations on her right foot. Then she got blood clots in her lungs, and needed to inject herself with a blood thinner. Those shots led to a pool of blood gathering under her stomach's skin, requiring another procedure in the hospital.

She would be off the tour for 10 months, and go two years between major titles. Since then, though, she has won eight of the past 13 Grand Slam tournaments.

On Saturday evening, hours after admiring the gold letters of her name on the board in a hallway of the Centre Court building listing Wimbledon's champions, Williams sat with a small group of reporters for one final interview.

As she picked at the remnants of ankle tape near a jagged scar on her lower right leg, Williams was asked whether, as she looks back on her career, she divides it into phases.

She began to answer, then paused and said: "Or there was that stage where I was in the hospital. Like, that wasn't so fun. I was doing really well, and then I ended up in the hospital. So that was kind of devastating. But ultimately, I think that stage set up this stage, you know? And ... yeah, I think it worked out for me."

Certainly did.

http://www.usnews.com/news/sports/artic ... am-up-next

[Guinevere]

And still she takes crap from men and women about her physique, her body, her 'tude. I've come to really respect her, especially in the last year since that horrible experience in the French in 2014 and her crankyness at the U.S. Open in 2012(I think).

As I posted elsewhere -- on Saturday morning I bought tickets to the Ladies Final at the Open -- I'm really hoping I get to see a calendar year slam completed. She deserves to do it in front of a home crowd, too. The Brits were not her friends.

[rubato]

There is a deep racism in the Anti-Serena commentary fuelled by resentment at how successful she is and how weak the racist commentators are.:

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/11/8189679/se ... lls-racism

For example, in the moments surrounding her win at the French Open in June, Williams was compared to an animal, likened to a man, and deemed frightening and horrifyingly unattractive. One Twitter user who wrote that Williams "looks like a gorilla, and sounds like a gorilla when she grunts while hitting the ball. In conclusion, she is a gorilla." And another described her as "so unbelievably dominant...and manly." ESPN sports commentator Bomani Jones responded to those reactions — as well as to the ones that dismissed them as subjective commentary — with a series of tweets. ...
At the 2001 BNP Paribas Open tournament in Indian Wells, California, Serena and Venus Williams were booed by fans who accused them of match fixing when Venus withdrew from a scheduled semifinal match. And then, according to the Williams family, things got worse:

"When Venus and I were walking down the stairs to our seats, people kept calling me 'nigger," her father and coach Richard Williams told USA Today at the time. One man, he said, threatened, "'I wish it was '75; we'd skin you alive.'"

Serena boycotted the event for more than a decade, only returning this year.

If you view sporting contests as an unbiased selection process for "best body" Serena's body is the best in women's tennis in the past 20 years and the leading candidate for "best body in Women's tennis of all time".


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Serena Williams is close to becoming the most successful woman in tennis - her dominance is awesome. She may become the "winningest" and most successful tennis player, man or woman, of all time but in this category she cannot be the "best". She'd have to have played best of 5 matches against men all this time to see a ranking there. She's worked for what she has achieved (and will achieve) and as such is to be respected.

But I wouldn't support her in any match - just as I would not support the Joker or Nidal. Roger is great and cute - Stan is great and cute - Dustin is note quite there yet but is fun to watch. Serena (sorry) is a massively superior talent and also massive. She may in one sense have a great body (for winning tennis) but from another perspective she's just terrifying.

Is it racism? Not for me I think but it probably is for some. I rather think for me it's chauvinism because I love to watch Sloane Stephens and Heather Watson. But then again, I can see some saying that's racist because those two conform more to the "Caucasian" notion of beauty.

Go figure! (Well, now I'm gonna get it...)

[oldr_n_wsr]

I thought we have moved beyond that $h!t. Guess not.
Sad, truly sad.

[wesw]

I think that serena is ugly physically and also ugly as far as her personality....

venus is kinda cute tho......

[Guinevere]

This:

is beautiful and strong and fit and kick-ass feminine!


SO is this:



And it's not massive. Sheesh, you are ridiculous. You don't have to find her attractive, but massive? You have no clue.

[Long Run]

1. How she looks is irrelevant to her greatness.

2. As for the ridiculous "commentary", it is coming from nobodies and in this day nobodies can put crap out there and some mainstream media will pick it up because it will get eyeballs and pass for "news".

[TPFKA@W]

I don't like her for the reasons I don't like other tennis players, mostly male, that being their massive egos, arrogance and attitude. She has a body that I would kill for though in terms of fitness. She could do a remake of the Alien movies and be the bad-ass like Sigourney Weaver was, but much, much more physically impressive. Like her or not, she has obviously put in some seriopus time making her body what it is. It would terrify most ordinary men, because they know they are not going to impress her. I doubt that real men, those who have put effort into their appearance would react similarly. In any case she is doing ok in spite of criticism.

My guess is Meade would have more in common physically with the Pillsbury dough boy thus he can't relate to her.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Hey, you look better in your picture than I imagined! Wanna shake and bake?

Baby cakes, this Pillsbury dough boy can't relate to any of 'em! Isn't a one wouldn't rather put out their own eyes with a Philips 'driver than have to contemplate this torso!

Yeah - massive. She has massive thighs, a massive arse and what looks like a half ton of jello threatening to burst out of restraint up top. This does not make her any less of a magnificent tennis champion. But ... contrast and compare:

[Guinevere]

Sloane's got some guns on her, yes. Strong, fit feminine guns. And thighs too. And an ass.





As for the chest -- Newsflash - woman has boobs

[wesw]

well I think that we all look like apes.....


funny thing I remember....

frank perdue went on oprah, when she was still with wbal I think...

anyway, she asked him if he minded when people said he looked like a chicken, and he shot back.., do you mind when people say you look like a baboon....

I believe that is has turned into an urban legend because oprah got rich and bought or bought off all remembrances of this incident, but it happened. it was big news here in perdue country.....

[TPFKA@W]

Hey, you look better in your picture than I imagined! Wanna shake and bake?

No thanks, I think a poke in the eye with a Phillips screw driver sounds better.

[wesw]

I don t think he wanted to poke your eye.....

...and I don t think he was gonna use a screwdriver......

[TPFKA@W]

I don t think he wanted to poke your eye.....

...and I don t think he was gonna use a screwdriver......

As usual you can be counted on to provide the lowest common denominator.

You don't need to explain people's jokes, I am certain everyone here gets them all way ahead of you.

[wesw]

hee hee hee.....

[TPFKA@W]

hee hee hee.....

[wesw]

heh heh heeh heh heh heh heeh heh ....... better?

[MajGenl.Meade]

I don t think he wanted to poke your eye........and I don t think he was gonna use a screwdriver......

That's nothing to do with what I wrote. I wrote that tennis ladies would rather poke their own eye out than be forced to gaze upon my puff pastry.

As for you, Guin... of course Sloane has those things - your point? I didn't say Serena was ugly (I wouldn't); I didn't say she was fat (I wouldn't); I didn't say she was unattractive (I wouldn't). What I do say is that I don't think she is attractive (quite right that I don't have to worry about that). But I do think Sloane is. Why? Because I think she conforms more closely to a "western" (?) "European" (?) pattern that I approve of. Is that racist or Chauvinist or what is it?

BTW Serena bending forward to receive serve is frightening from either direction - to me.

[TPFKA@W]

Chyna wants to hug you Meade.