Serena Williams – The Best – Again!

As Serena Williams illustrated in 62 minutes on the All England Club’s Centre Court, her skill and will to win are unparalleled. As it turned out, Russian Maria Sharapova and Czech Petra Kvitova pushed Queen Serena the hardest, but as is painfully clear, there is only one player that can beat the spectacularly equipped 28-year old and that is Serena herself.

After passing Billie Jean King and claiming her 13th Grand Slam title and fourth Wimbledon Championship, Serena has proven that she is the best female player to ever play the game. She is a ferocious competitor and her days of beating herself are long gone. In truth, most of the veteran players, like Zvonareva, know they must play their best tennis not to be embarrassed by Williams.

Her 6-3, 6-2 thrashing of the 21st seeded Vera Zvonareva makes us forget that the Russian played brilliantly for two weeks, winning matches and moving up 13 slots on the rankings ladder. And, she had a difficult draw to work through. Vera knocked off Belgian powerhouse Yanina Wickmayer, 4th seed Jalena Jankovic, who always retires when the going gets tough, and oddsmaker favorite Kim Clijsters before coming back against underrated Tsvetana Pironkova. Those four wins alone speak volumes about Zvonareva’s ability.

The ease with which Williams swept past Vera does not take anything away from those quality wins. What it does do is clearly demonstrate Serena’s dominance when the stage is as big as it gets. When other players are squeamish, Serena Williams rises to the fore. Her ability to shine under pressure makes great players look inferior and in a sad way diminishes the talent level on the tour.

In reality, the toughest matches Serena had at Wimbledon were her round of sixteen battle with comeback kid Maria Sharapova and her quarterfinal match with the tournament’s 20-year old whiz kid Petra Kvitova. Sharapova has the heart of a tested lion and Kvitova has the innocence of a child who told the media that she could not win the tournament.

What both those players brought to Centre Court was a focused, hard-serving, hard-hitting game along with a willingness to take chances. If a player is challenging Serena Williams, Kvitova may have it right. Be prepared to lose, go for broke and be willing to look a bit foolish. Then, if everything goes your way, you may put up a good fight.

Serena Williams is that good. She sees no reason to be nervous about any other player on the tour so she plays relaxed, confident tennis. When you are as good as Serena, why not?

As evidenced by today’s play, Serena has the best serve on the tour. She has the most powerful cross court backhand and her mere presence applies so much pressure that players crumble before her.

Here are some pretty impressive stats. Today, Serena had nine aces, 3 double faults and 15 unforced errors. For the fortnight, Serena averaged 1.6 aces per service game! Most impressive was that she won 94%, that’s right 94%, of her first serves. Serena struck 29 outright winners to Vera’s 9.

Midway through the second set, Zvonareva had not hit a winning groundstroke! Not known for her net play, Ms. Williams won 14 of 14 net approaches. Perhaps she is not known for her net prowess because she rarely relies on that tactic.

Serena is the best. With the exception of Clijsters, Henin and Sharapova, no other established tour players have shown an ability to stay with the Queen.

What women’s tennis needs is the rise of new blood like Pironkova and Kvitova; tall, talented, eager and unafraid challengers. If we could somehow get one of these talents into a finals, we might finally get some suspense at the end of a Grand Slam.