I watched Margaret play when I was young. She was superbly aggressive and graceful at the same time. Her dominant approach to play was not normal for that era in her time so she rolled over many other women players. Her record stands for the moment as the top women player in terms of major wins and total wins of majors.
Serena has a very good chance of catching her now that she is within striking range of the number 23 and then 24 which would put her on top. Such is the thing of records. Serena is so dominant among the women that I wonder what has happened to the rest of the pack. Have they no answer? Once or twice a player gets smart and plays for guile and touch rather than trying to out-slug Serena because that simply won't get the job done unless Serena has an off day.
Serena is back on top
This is no surprise since she sort of owns the spot. It is as if she had taken a vacation and rented out the spot for a while and has moved back in. Will she stay there? For now it looks clear that she has all the prowess that she ever had on the court and the newest crop of women still can't measure up except for a now and then win when her game is off.
How to Beat Serena
What would I do if I were a woman trying to win against Serena? Good question.Serving: I suspect that my only focus would be on superb serve placement work that includes lots of slice to keep the ball low and moving to one side or the other. The serve targets would be a mix of body serves and wide slices with nothing in her strike zone.
Groundstrokes: Work on the the slice/underspin backhand skills and for that matter work on chip shots from both sides since the only way to hurt her is to bring her up short and low and then wide. I would only give her high balls when sending up a moonball exchange to alter the pace and bounce height.
Slice backhand - Evonne Goolagong -
Serena Williams vs Steffi Graf - check out the commentary on the Graf Backhand giving Serena problems. Still, Serena wins this match with total power. As much as Steffi had power Serena has more. You can't outhit her, but you might be able to outwit her with tactics and an all court strategy. Take a cue from Roger Federer revitalizing his game by using chip and charge along with more and more variation in his game.
Return of Serve: Have strong serves against you hit from inside the baseline to increase speed and train closer and closer to the service line as a form of overtraining. This can emulate a very heavy serve. You need to be able to face down her serve and take it early even if it is simply to chip it back. Her serve has to be neutralized. In fact, I haven't seen anyone step in on her regularly to try to distract and intimidate her as I know some men would do against the same serve. You need to find a way to block the serve back and attack.
The Tempo: I'd give her no power except when or if I ever saw a mid court ball and could hit it deep to a corner. Nothing short of that is anything but feeding her strength. Instead, I'd mix the game up. Picture a Steffi Graff backhand slice with lots of bite on the bounce. The groundstrokes have to stay out of her strike zone either above her shoulders and down at her ankles at varying speeds.
All that said: Meditate and contemplate facing off against your ultimate challenge because that is what she is for most of the players that come up against her.
Finally. Congratulations to Serena. She earned it again and again. My only desire is to have some other players give her a challenge so that the tennis will seem more interesting. This is the one thing the men's tour with epic five set battles between Fed and Raffa continues to offer.
