Serena Williams: ‘If I were a man,’ I would have been considered the greatest a long

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/tenn...ago/ar-BBxAoNx

The year will not end in the way in which Serena Williams might have hoped.

She reached three Grand Slam finals, but won only one in the follow-up to a year of such dominance and grace that she was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year. Along the way, she lost her No. 1 world ranking after 157 weeks, but she made up for that in a different, typically distinctive way.

At 35, Williams remains dominant in her sport, but she is increasingly aware that what remains of an athletic career that began when she was a child is approaching its end. Taking stock of the social and racial landscape, she’s assessing her place in it and as part of that, she knows just how different the debate about whether she is one of sports’ all-time greats might be if only . ..

“I think if I were a man, I would have been in that conversation a long time ago,” Williams said last week in an interview with rapper Common for ESPN’s “The Undefeated.”

"I think being a woman is just a whole new set of problems from society that you have to deal with, as well as being black, so it’s a lot to deal with — and especially lately. I’ve been able to speak up for women’s rights because I think that gets lost in color, or gets lost in cultures. Women make up so much of this world, and, yeah, if I were a man, I would have 100 percent been considered the greatest ever a long time ago.”

Male athletes, including LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick, have not been hesitant to speak up about violent events or during the election cycle, but, as a woman and an African American in a sport long dominated by white people, Williams has had to overcome a self-preserving instinct to suppress her opinions.

“It’s very challenging because sometimes when things are blatantly wrong and blatantly unfair and blatantly racist or sexist, I just have to go and put on a brave smile and not let anyone know how I feel on the inside so they don’t get that satisfaction even though on the inside I would be dying,” Williams said.

Along the way, Williams has, she says, come to “embrace” her appearance after being targeted by body shamers around the Internet.

“There was a time when I didn’t feel incredibly comfortable about my body because I felt like I was too strong. I had to take a second and think, ‘Who says I’m too strong? This body has enabled me to be the greatest player that I can be.’

“And now my body is in style, so I’m feeling good about it. [Laughs.] Like, I’m finally in style! It took awhile to get there. I’m just really thankful for the way I was brought up by my mom and my dad to give me that confidence. I could have been discouraged, and I wouldn’t be as great as I was because I would have done different exercises or I would have done different things. I totally embrace who I am and what I am.”

Some of the events of 2016 caused Williams to speak up earlier this year. After a Minneapolis-area police officer shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop as his fiancee recorded the incident, she wrote on Facebook about the fear she felt for her nephew as he drove her to meetings.

“I remembered that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend,” Williams wrote. “All of this went through my mind in a matter of seconds. I even regretted not driving myself. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my nephew. He’s so innocent. So were all the others.

” . . . Why did I have to think about this in 2016? Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives? But I realized we must stride on — for it’s not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go.”

Williams can choose whether she will play a role in that journey, but Claudia Rankine, writing on “The Meaning of Serena Williams” in the New York Times Magazine in the summer of 2015, embraces the totality of Serena, as is Williams herself.

“Because just as important to me as her victories is her willingness to be an emotionally complete person while also being black. She wins, yes, but she also loses it. She jokes around, gets angry, is frustrated or joyous, and on and on. She is fearlessly on the side of Serena, in a culture that has responded to living while black with death.”

As part of the journey of 2016, Williams wrote an open letter “to all incredible women who strive for excellence” in which she urged them to “dream big” and concluded:

As we know, women have to break down many barriers on the road to success. One of those barriers is the way we are constantly reminded we are not men, as if it is a flaw. People call me one of the “world’s greatest female athletes.” Do they say LeBron is one of the world’s best male athletes? Is Tiger? Federer? Why not? They are certainly not female. We should never let this go unchallenged. We should always be judged by our achievements, not by our gender.
For everything I’ve achieved in my life, I am profoundly grateful to have experienced the highs and lows that come with success. It is my hope that my story, and yours, will inspire all young women out there to push for greatness and follow their dreams with steadfast resilience. We must continue to dream big, and in doing so, we empower the next generation of women to be just as bold in their pursuits.
Williams has never been one to apologize for her opinions or her beliefs. Her game is based on power and so is her life.

“I shouldn’t have to apologize for saying and believing that I could be the best,” Williams said. “We took the globe and shook it, me and [her sister] Venus, because we came from Compton [Calif.]. We came from nothing and in tennis you kind of have to have something. We came and we conquered.”

Whatever she does next, don’t be surprised if she shakes the globe again.

[Cybran]

She is man enough. I doubt lack of testosterone is her problem.

[Kryos]

flaw. People call me one of the “world’s greatest female athletes.” Do they say LeBron is one of the world’s best male athletes?

Because the best is an absolute. The fastest running person on earth is a male and the fastest human female is not even in the top 100 of the male 100 meter dash sprinters. If she doesn't want to make or see any difference between males and females, she would like to compete with Andy Murray P. or Novak Djokovic P. to show that she is "the greatest" and not "just" the greatest female tennis player? This argument goes both ways. If you want complete equality, we also need to measure equally. If you accept, that the human female has biological disadvantages that are impossible to overcome with training compared to equal fit and trained males, then you have to accept that you are the "the best FEMALE" in this sport and not "the best" Period.

[Steve French]

Didn't she say how great she was and how she could beat any guy outside top 200 when she was young too? Then some random pro tennis guy owned both of them? Not even like top male pro tennis player just some random.

"An event dubbed a "Battle of the Sexes" took place during the 1998 Australian Open between Karsten Braasch and the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena Williams, aged 17 and 16 respectively, had claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world's top 200, so Braasch, then ranked 203rd, challenged them both. Braasch was described by one journalist as "a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple bottles of ice cold lager."

The matches took place on court number 12 inMelbourne Park, after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two beers. He first took on Serena and after leading 5–0, beat her 6–1. Venus then walked on court and again Braasch was victorious, this time winning 6–2.

Braasch said afterwards, "500 and above, no chance." He added that he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game "fun."

Braasch said the big difference was that men can chase down shots much easier, and that men put spin on the ball that the women can't handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350.

An 18 year old 4th ranked Serena Williams claimed she could compete with men in professional sport; the US Open champion believing she could take on and beat the best players in the men's game. Nothing ever came to be from this claim."

[Vyxn]

the greatest what? female tennis player? isn't you already considered that? or greatest tennis player period? when she starts competing against professional men tennis players and wins many men tennis tournaments then she might be considered the greatest tennis player period

[Deleted]

She is man enough. I doubt lack of testosterone is her problem.

Wasn't there actually some doubt about this at some point?

And she's wrong btw. Most womens sports aren't comparable to what the men do/perform/achieve. In tennis they even play less rounds.

[Socialhealer]

Because the best is an absolute. The fastest running person on earth is a male and the fastest human female is not even in the top 100 of the male 100 meter dash sprinters. If she doesn't want to make or see any difference between males and females, she would like to compete with Andy Murray P. or Novak Djokovic P. to show that she is "the greatest" and not "just" the greatest female tennis player? This argument goes both ways. If you want complete equality, we also need to measure equally. If you accept, that the human female has biological disadvantages that are impossible to overcome with training compared to equal fit and trained males, then you have to accept that you are the "the best FEMALE" in this sport and not "the best" Period.

agreed, how can you be the best tennis player ever when there are a ton of men out there that would run you ragged all over the court.

remember when 1 man ranked 203 beat both williams sisters in the same day, yeh there are another 200 men who could do that, she can be one one of or the greatest female tennis player, but on the planet? sorry you can't choose to ignore everything with a pair of testicles.

[Deleted]

That's easy enough to see, just match her against Djokovich or whoever is the best male tennis player in the world and we'll have the result.

[Zoranon]

This is trivial, she is not the best tennis player, she would have gotten destroyed by any of the first 200 or men.

As such she cannot be called the greatest.

[Steve French]

She should demand a match with a male athlete at her sport of similar status so we can see if she can beat him.

This has been brought up many times in the past.

"Female pros play male players all the time. They seek out male college players as practice partners precisely because they give the top women all they can handle. At full gas, any top ranked Division 1 male college player will routinely beat the world’s top female professional players quite comfortably, and most of those males can’t even get a computer ranking."

"There is now a metric that rates the relative level of all tennis players, regardless of age, sex, etc. It’s called Universal Tennis Rating. It uses actual competitive results and data to make its assessments, and is constantly being improved as more data is added. But it already gives a fairly accurate idea of how male and female players might compare to each other across the board. Top male players such as Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Roger Federer are rated as level 16 (they use decimal places to provide further comparison as needed). For reference, the male player currently ranked 500 in the world (Yannick Hanfmann) is rated as a 15. Most of the men ranked on the computer below 1000 (down to 2200 or so where the rankings stop), are either 14 or 15. Serena Williams, the best women’s player in the world, is rated as 13. This is completely in line with what you’d expect, and is equivalent to a mid-level male college player."

[Cybran]

Wasn't there actually some doubt about this at some point?

A Russian coach got fined for calling them the "Williams Brothers". CNN ran the story that it was SEXIST and RACISTS. Because only black people use the term brothers, i guess.

[Jtbrig7390]

That's pretty irrelevant to her position on the matter. I don't think you should say she doesn't deserve recongition simply because she couldn't compete with males.

Best means Best. If she can't beat the best male then she can't say shes the best, that only makes her the best female. Pick any top 10 male player and they will destroy her.

Like I said Best means Best not runner up.

[Shakadam]

She's making a whole heap of assumptions without any proof.

and, yeah, if I were a man, I would have 100 percent been considered the greatest ever a long time ago.”

Or perhaps she would have been a barely top 100 player? That's just as likely. Her skill is obviously good enough to be a top ranked female player, but that's not the same as saying that her skill level with some added physique (i.e being a man) would boost her to the top spot among men also.

You can't claim to be the greatest ever when there's a whole bunch of people better than you are. That's why we separate mens and womens sports, because otherwise no woman would ever be considered great.

[Shakadam]

Well I cannot have children, am likely to live shorter than a woman and have a lower pain threshold but I am not complaining, that's part of being born a guy.

That's a myth btw, comes from the common "men could never handle childbirth" statement, which is something that can never be tested.
All testing (what little there is of it) has shown that men have a much higher pain threshold (i.e can tolerate more pain before it actually starts registering as pain) and can tolerate a high level of pain for much longer.
Which is completely in line with what you'd expect from the gender which evolved to be the hunter and thus runs a much higher risk of getting injured.

[Jtbrig7390]

Again though, you shouldn't expect them to be able to compete against males. You're literally saying we should never give females the same kind of attention solely because they can't compete with males and that seems pretty sexist.

No I am saying you can't be called the best unless you beat the best.

You can't scream equality and then demand something that isn't equal and she did just that. Want to be called the best then beat the best or accept you are the best female.

Ur not the best chess player unless you beat the best chest player. She isn't the best tennis player unless she beats the best.

[Kryos]

That's a myth btw, comes from the common "men could never handle childbirth" statement, which is something that can never be tested.
All testing (what little there is of it) has shown that men have a much higher pain threshold (i.e can tolerate more pain before it actually starts registering as pain) and can tolerate a high level of pain for much longer.
Which is completely in line with what you'd expect from the gender which evolved to be the hunter and thus runs a much higher risk of getting injured.

Kidney stones hurt more than child birth, confirmed my many woman who had both. So if you can handle the pain of kidney stones, you can handle child birth.

[Collegeguy]

Didn't she lose to a man ranked far far lower than her in a match.

[Aoyi]

I don't know if she really could have been the greatest in this era of tennis if she was male. Her serve is her strength, not necessarily her return game. To compare to male tennis players, I'd say her style is closes to Andy Rodick. I think going up against Federer or Djokovic, she'd win ocassionally, but I think they'd still be the number 1 and 2. I think she'd play well against Nadal and Murray, and be a really solid 3 or 4, but I don't think she'd be the greatest. I do think she's the greatest American tennis player though. I just don't think she'd be the world's greatest in this particular era of tennis.

[Deleted]

If she doesn't want to be called the best female tennis player then that means she wants to grouped in with the guys yes?

In which case she isn't even top 10.

Being in a seperate class to the men works in your favour, not against you.

As for greatest sports person, she isn't, and she isn't anywhere close to being it.

[Deleted]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/tenn...ago/ar-BBxAoNx


g]

I guess she wants to play against men too huh, well let's have her do that and then we can talk about her being the greatest.

Women and men are separated in tennis you say? Well, shit. Oh but I'm sure that's just sexism. It isn't? Crap.
You will forever NOT be the greatest because you can't compete with the men. But hey, I would love to be proven otherwise. So go ahead and try, Williams.

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That's a myth btw, comes from the common "men could never handle childbirth" statement, which is something that can never be tested.
All testing (what little there is of it) has shown that men have a much higher pain threshold (i.e can tolerate more pain before it actually starts registering as pain) and can tolerate a high level of pain for much longer.
Which is completely in line with what you'd expect from the gender which evolved to be the hunter and thus runs a much higher risk of getting injured.

It's been proven? I'm not actually saying that men have a lower pain threshhold, but I would want you to support your statement if it's actually been proven.