Ah, Serena...

Can anyone explain a ranking system that puts Safina ahead of Williams? How does winning four non-slams and playing in two finals in 12 months trump Williams winning a slam plus a couple other titles? Admittedly, all I know is the rankings are based on the past 12 months, and all I know is Williams beat Safina in the Aussie final.

I shake my head at Serena's comments but Elliotte's right. And we'll continue to rip athletes for being press conference robots, too.

 

I love the part about her off-court activities.

"I've been writing, but I haven't been writing. In my mind I've been saying I want to write, but I haven't actually physically picked up a pencil and started writing," the U.S. Open and Australian Open champion said.

 

So when some baseball player says "the better team just lost this series 4-0," like, say, that jackass from the Diamondbacks did a few years ago, the proper response is to make no comment on it out of fear that they'll never anything that stupid again?

And I'd quibble with your general sentiment anyhow. The tennis media treats Serena Williams quite well, especially the TV media. She gets a lot more of a free pass then Henin (or, for that matter, Hingis) ever did. (Hingis especially was villainized, deservedly so, for the "half a man" comment.)

 

The really stupid thing about that D-backs statement is that they *were* involved in a sweep where the better team lost that year, and it wasn't the NLCS.

You don't get outscored in the regular season by being a better team than anyone in the playoffs.

 

Or, she could be injured a lot because she is frequently out of shape. The Williams sisters may be the most fragile athletes in the world. Their initials should be WD.

 

For two athletes who seem extremely gracious and not full of themselves, the Williams sisters usually come across terribly after a losing match, rarely giving credit to their opponents.

 

Padraig Harrington agrees wholeheartedly with this thread, because he was the 2008 player of the year so he is THE BEST, PERIOD, until the 2009 award. Let's all hope the Woods guy doesn't make an ass out of himself and claim to be the best.

 

Rankings are stupid, you play the game and the winner determines who's best. Tennis can seed their tournements any number of ways but it's the result at the end that counts, not the seedings.

But respect for one's opponent is the hallmark of sports(wo)manship, Serena is a great player and an assclown.
Tiger learned this lesson with the infamous, "B Game" comment. Let your racket do the talking Serena, because everytime you open your mouth all the world smells is bilious contempt.

 

The difference would be that Tiger takes his role in the sport ridiculously serious, understands his place in history, and lives to beat the ever loving shit out of everyone every week he competes. I think the only time Tiger's ever shown up ill-prepared for a tournament was the US Open after Earl died. And while Tiger might shrug and give a smart alleck grin, I do think he gives credit to other golfers (for the most part) when they beat him. I don't believe Serena does.

Although Elliotte's point is fair, I think Alma's is as well. There is a tightrope walk between arrogance, confidence and delusion. Serena is a great athlete, and she'll go down as one of the greatest players ever. And it's probably a good thing that she's had interests outside her sport because I don't think anyone should be punished for believing there is more to life than tennis. But Safina is No. 1 because she's dragged her ass to tournaments all around the world for the better part of a year and taken on all comers. There is something to be said for that, the desire to compete often and be there competing because it's good for the sport, not just for good for the player. If everyone played Serena's schedule, there would be no WTA Tour. So people like Safina are essentially subsidizing the big paychecks that Serena can win when she choses to by keeping the momentum of the tour going year round.

Of course Serena's probably still the best player. But she's not the No. 1 ranked player. They're clearly two different things. If it mattered to Serena to be No. 1, she could probably change that. Clearly it does not. It mattered to Steffi Graff to be No. 1, and that's part of the reason why Serena will never touch Steffi's 22 Slams.

 

and this is the reason why the Williams sisters will never be appreciated. Even when they win, it's always couched alongside them not winning enough or how they don't care for the game.

 

That is not even close to being in the same realm of what Serena Williams said.

One was the delusional rant of a desperate player, the other is the feelings of a player who, a helluva lot of people who know a lot more about tennis than the average person, would make a very sound argument is the best player, particularly when she is healthy - which she hasn't been the last few years.

And the rankings mean very little in tennis in terms of determining who is the best player.

 

The tennis rankings system seems dispassionate and entirely empirical. Only raw numbers matter. Therefore, I can understand why anybody could call them into question when they are purported to determine the "best" player on the planet.