It seems that after Serena thrashed Her Royal Shriekness at the Aussie a couple of years ago after being big and fat to boot, she had a wake-up call of sorts...
Perhaps she sensed SOMEWHAT her tennis mortality; if she could win against the best while in horrible shape, what if she got in better shape?
Could she once again be perched at the top of the WTA rankings?
Also, we have to consider her indomitable will and fighting spirit; she, more than any other woman (or man, for that matter, in ANY sport) possessed/possesses the ability to miraculously rise to the big occasion despite her lack of fitness...
Add to that the fact that within the last year she was able to win 2 slams and get to the final of another, only to narrowly lose to Venus (who also only seems to RISE at Wimbledon
) and you have a scenario where she probably feels that this should validate her return to #1, even if she only seems to flirt with that position...
Granted, for one reason or the other, (indifference or injury) both Williams' never really seemed overly concerned with STAYING #1 for the long term...
Perhaps either (or BOTH) could have been considered in any argument for the GOAT title, certainly a few years ago it was thought, I dare say EXPECTED of them...but with their many outside interests and inability to stay injury-free (as alluded to earlier in this post, Serena's style and approach to the game virtually INSURES that she can't play more than a couple of tourneys in a row) ONLY hoping to "peak" at 3 of the 4 slams (guess which one I left out
)
My personal feeling is that back in the day when they were considered, along with Lindsay, the biggest proponents of "big babe" tennis, that if they learned and utilized ALL aspects of the game (taking advantage of their HUGE strokes and ending the points sooner at the net) instead of running around, beating themselves to death in these interminable rallies, they may not have incurred so many injuries over the years...
Let's face it, Serena ain't exactly GRACEFUL out there, she sure as hell don't "float" effortlessly, more like you can feel the ground shake when she's plodding around (once again, she's driven by that damn WILL of hers)
But time inevitably moves on and the same power game that the Williams helped to pioneer is being used against them by today's younger (if no less robotic) players like Safina, Azarenka, Wozniaki, etc., and on any given day such contemporaries as Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Zvonereva....and at the end of the day only the SERVES of the Williams actually set them apart from the pack, since they are no longer assured of merely "outhitting" their opponents...
All of this leads me back to the true "topic" here...most likely no one named Williams will win the French
by Togtdyalttai » 06 May 2009, 21:22 
