Up for Debate

Was Serena the GOAT of Her Era?

A. M. Bailey

Serena Williams can arguably be classified the GOAT in Women’s Tennis, leaving an everlasting mark on the game and showing her unsurpassed commitment to the game.  “I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me,” she said. The 40-year-old athlete thinks it sounds old-fashioned. So, she prefers to say that she is in “transition” from the game to having a life as a ‘regular’ human being away from the spotlight and focusing more on her family. 

“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.” The good thing for Serena is that her life and legacy are so much more than one thing

She won her first major as a 17-year-old at the 1999 US Open, won 10 more through the first decade of the 21st century despite an excellent women’s tour including sister Venus, Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters in their prime, and it was only health and time that stopped her from breaking every record imaginable.

After winning five majors in 2002 and 2003 — including the “Serena Slam” of four straight, from the 2002 French Open to 2003 Australian — a series of knee injuries cut her down.

For the next three years, the seemingly unbeatable Williams reached just two grand slam finals, winning only the 2005 title in Melbourne before the injuries saw her tumble out of the top 100 the next year for the first time since 1997.

After rounding back into elite form, at one point winning five out of eight major singles titles from 2008 to 2010, her body betrayed her again when a blood clot in her lung and serious haematoma in her abdomen saw her miss the back half of 2010 and start of 2011.

By the end of 2011, having unravelled as she lost the US Open final to Sam Stosur and reached 30 years of age, it was reasonable to assume Williams’s best days were behind her. She has now soldiered on to 2022 but unfortunately we won’t be seeing her step out onto the court again. It’s entirely possible that her next endeavour will bring with it more success, adulation and accolades, but it’s hard to imagine anyone making more of an impact in any field than she has in the tennis world.

So, to tennis lovers across the school and the nation, I leave with the words of Naomi Osaka who summed it up the best: “Serena is unequivocally the best athlete ever. Forget female athlete, I mean athlete, no-one else has changed her sport as much as she did and against all odds.”