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Posted by on Jun 10, 2013 in Featured Sports, Pat Wong, Sports | 0 comments

Instant Coffee: Serena and Rafa take the French Open

France Tennis French12

Serena Williams Wins Second French Open and 16th Career Grand Slam

Serena completely dominated the last 2 rounds of the French Open. In the semi-finals, Serena annihilated last year’s runner up, Sara Errani, in straight sets 6-0 and 6-1. She followed it up by winning in straight sets 6-4 and 6-4 against last year’s winner, Maria Sharapova. Sharapova actually played great but Serena’s athleticism, power, and speed were too much. Even when Sharapova broke Serena’s serve in the second set, Serena immediately broke Sharapova’s serve in response to take away any hope that she had any chance.

In a sport where youth rules and players are normally past their prime by 30, it is amazing that Serena looks as powerful and as fast as ever at age 31. When she is at her best, she has been the most dominating female, tennis player of all time. She is the biggest athletic freak the sport has ever seen. There have been Majors where she entered out of shape and played herself into shape before winning the Major. Serena likes tennis and is great at it but she does not love it like a player such as Roger Federer. She has not always been completely dedicated to tennis because of her outside interests. If she was, she would probably be over 20 Grand Slam titles instead of 16, and in position to surpass Margaret Court’s 24 career Grand Slam titles and be the unquestioned greatest female tennis player of all time.

As it stands, she is also trailing Stefi Graf (22), Helen Moody (19), Martina Navratilova (18), and Chris Evert (18). Serena noted that she is only going to play 2-3 more years. However, it looks like she understands her final total will define her legacy and she is committed to playing her best the rest of the time she has left. With no signs of slowing down, she definitely has enough time to get to 19 or 20 to tie or surpass Moody for third most. However, I do not think it is probable that she will get to 24 as she would have to win almost every Major the rest of the way. As the desire to be great and win should be a criteria in determining the best, I feel she will ultimately be remembered at the top of the list of female players and in the conversation for the greatest of all time but not the unanimous best. However, if I had to pick one female player to win one match, I would pick Serena without thinking.

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Rafael Nadal Captures 8th French Open

Sunday’s final was all but a formality after Rafael Nadal won the epic 5 set match against Novak Djokovic in the semifinal. Nadal was able to dispatch his fellow countryman and friend, David Ferrer, in straight sets. However, Nadal won the title when he beat Djokovic on Friday. I was following the match at work. With Nadal up 2 sets to 1, I thought it was over and Djokovic did well to get a set off Nadal. However, Djokovic fought back and won the fourth set 7-6 in a tie breaker after it looked like Nadal had control of the set and match. When Djokovic broke Nadal and was up 2 sets to 0, I was stunned and started to think Djokovic could pull it off. Of course, Nadal is tough as hell and fought back on his best surface. Ultimately, Djokovic was rattled near the end of the match when it looked like he had control. He smashed an overhand forehand at the net but could not prevent his momentum from forcing him into running into the net. Consequently, he was penalized and lost the point. From that point, Djokovic never recovered. He would go on to yell at the umpire in frustration and Nadal finished him off shortly afterwards.

Nadal already had the most French Open titles at 7 after winning last year. If there was any question he was the greatest clay player of All-Time, he settled it with an epic 5 set win against the current No. 1 player in the world, who has had Nadal’s number in recent years in every other major. His 8th French Open title is also the most times a player has won any Major. It is not simply the 8 titles that is mind boggling, it is who he has done it against. En route, he beat Roger Federer 4 times in the French Open. Federer has the most career Grand Slam wins and is arguably the best player of all time. Of course, the only argument against Federer is his inability to beat Nadal. Federer was the No. 1 player in 3 of those times and it was during a time when he was winning the other 3 Majors each year. Federer is probably also the second best clay player in the last decade. However, Nadal completely overwhelmed and overpowered Federer in their matches in the French Open. Moreover, Nadal is also 5-0 against Djokovic in the French Open. His only loss in the French Open was against Robin Soderling. It is debatable whether he was healthy for that match as he was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon shortly after the French. The only player in history in the same argument as Nadal is Bjorn Born, who had 6 French Open titles. However, it is clear that Nadal has left very little doubt that he is the greatest clay player of all time.

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