Serena Williams defeats S Halep in 3 sets; 309 Grand Slam match wins!

[Anonymous]

Halep played really well but not well enough to beat The Greatest!

Serena Williams emerged from her toughest test yet at this year’s US Open, edging Simona Halep 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night to reach the semi-finals.

Halep, the 2014 French Open runner-up and seeded No5, was the first player to break Williams’ serve in the tournament and the first to take a set off the No1 seed.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/07/serena-williams-simona-halep-us-open-2016-tennis

Who do you think will come out of Wozniacki and Kerber? My money is on Kerber.

[Anonymous]

Love Her. I am so happy!!!! I'm hoping Caroline will win against Kerber. I'm happy she's back winning.

[Anonymous]

That was a great match! I like Serena but was kind of hoping Halep could pull off the upset- once she had a brief letdown in the third you could kind of tell it was over at that point though.

[Anonymous]

Always nice to see Serena with some serious competition. Great second set from Simona & amazing closing skills (as always) from Serena. Hoping for a competitive Serena/Kerber final. Wozniacki doesn't have it in her to make an interesting match vs Serena.

[Anonymous]

What consistently amazes me about Serena is her mental fortitude. It seems like other players around her age were mentally done with the game by this point in their careers and retired. Or they had to retire because of injuries.

Serena just keeps going. She gets injured - comes back just as strong. She never stops.

I understand why people criticize her dad, but he must have done something right (along with the whole family) to keep her and to a lesser extent Venus, playing top level tennis for such a long time without suffering burn out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What consistently amazes me about Serena is her mental fortitude. It seems like other players around her age were mentally done with the game by this point in their careers and retired. Or they had to retire because of injuries.

Serena just keeps going. She gets injured - comes back just as strong. She never stops.

I understand why people criticize her dad, but he must have done something right (along with the whole family) to keep her and to a lesser extent Venus, playing top level tennis for such a long time without suffering burn out.

Serena and Venus often credit their longevity to the fact that their dad didn't let them play juniors and hand picked the early tournaments they would participate in. I'm just so happy they are still playing. Venus may not be winning Slams anymore, but she is still playing at a competitive level. Serena is just out of this world. I was glued to the screen last night. Halep played well, but there was nothing she could do once Serena got dialed in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What consistently amazes me about Serena is her mental fortitude. It seems like other players around her age were mentally done with the game by this point in their careers and retired. Or they had to retire because of injuries.

Serena just keeps going. She gets injured - comes back just as strong. She never stops.

I understand why people criticize her dad, but he must have done something right (along with the whole family) to keep her and to a lesser extent Venus, playing top level tennis for such a long time without suffering burn out.

Serena and Venus often credit their longevity to the fact that their dad didn't let them play juniors and hand picked the early tournaments they would participate in. I'm just so happy they are still playing. Venus may not be winning Slams anymore, but she is still playing at a competitive level. Serena is just out of this world. I was glued to the screen last night. Halep played well, but there was nothing she could do once Serena got dialed in.

I have a slightly different perspective on the same topic (longevity). I think that they have played so long because they have spaced out their careers more over the years. They have taken more time off throughout their careers pursuing various side endeavors and played fewer tournaments per year than many other top professionals. I think this has decreased the "wear and tear" on them and allowed them to extend their physical careers longer than others.

Venus has played for almost 22 years (it will be 22 years next month) and Serena has played almost 21 years (her anniversary is in about 2 weeks). In that time, Venus has played 933 singles matches. Serena has played 898 matches.

Compare to:
Martina Navratilova, career of 19 years, 1661 matches
Chris Evert, career of 17 years, 1455 matches
Virginia Wade, career of 18 years, 1168 matches
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, career of 19 years, 1054 matches
Conchita Martinez, career of 18 years, 1036 matches
Francesca Schiavone, career of 18+ years (not retired yet), 1036 matches
Stéphanie Foretz, career of 19+ years (not retired yet), 1025
Steffi Graf, career of 17 years, 1017 matches
Tamarine Tanasugarn, career of 21 years, 999 matches
Patty Schnyder, career of 17 years, 990 matches

These are just the match leaders for the open era (since 1975). However, since top tennis players, play ballpark 45-60 matches a year (with a few exceptions), the Williams sisters still average significantly fewer average matches per year and have some bigger breaks throughout the year where they don't play tournaments. I think that that lower rate of play, helps to decrease the strain on their bodies and allows them to extend their careers longer than other players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What consistently amazes me about Serena is her mental fortitude. It seems like other players around her age were mentally done with the game by this point in their careers and retired. Or they had to retire because of injuries.

Serena just keeps going. She gets injured - comes back just as strong. She never stops.

I understand why people criticize her dad, but he must have done something right (along with the whole family) to keep her and to a lesser extent Venus, playing top level tennis for such a long time without suffering burn out.

Serena and Venus often credit their longevity to the fact that their dad didn't let them play juniors and hand picked the early tournaments they would participate in. I'm just so happy they are still playing. Venus may not be winning Slams anymore, but she is still playing at a competitive level. Serena is just out of this world. I was glued to the screen last night. Halep played well, but there was nothing she could do once Serena got dialed in.

I have a slightly different perspective on the same topic (longevity). I think that they have played so long because they have spaced out their careers more over the years. They have taken more time off throughout their careers pursuing various side endeavors and played fewer tournaments per year than many other top professionals. I think this has decreased the "wear and tear" on them and allowed them to extend their physical careers longer than others.

Venus has played for almost 22 years (it will be 22 years next month) and Serena has played almost 21 years (her anniversary is in about 2 weeks). In that time, Venus has played 933 singles matches. Serena has played 898 matches.

Compare to:
Martina Navratilova, career of 19 years, 1661 matches
Chris Evert, career of 17 years, 1455 matches
Virginia Wade, career of 18 years, 1168 matches
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, career of 19 years, 1054 matches
Conchita Martinez, career of 18 years, 1036 matches
Francesca Schiavone, career of 18+ years (not retired yet), 1036 matches
Stéphanie Foretz, career of 19+ years (not retired yet), 1025
Steffi Graf, career of 17 years, 1017 matches
Tamarine Tanasugarn, career of 21 years, 999 matches
Patty Schnyder, career of 17 years, 990 matches

These are just the match leaders for the open era (since 1975). However, since top tennis players, play ballpark 45-60 matches a year (with a few exceptions), the Williams sisters still average significantly fewer average matches per year and have some bigger breaks throughout the year where they don't play tournaments. I think that that lower rate of play, helps to decrease the strain on their bodies and allows them to extend their careers longer than other players.

Great stats. I definitely think younger players should learn from V and Rena when it comes to how many matches they play. I think Kerber has played a lot this year in comparison to Serena but Rena has a better win ratio. It sad to see so many of these players burn out after 30.

[Anonymous]

Interesting thread, stats are very helpful! Did any of these player serve as well as Serena?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the stats! I do believe their side careers (was it Serena who either opened or was thinking of opening a nail salon at one point?) helps with the mental aspect as well. They are not 100% focused on tennis and that also helps with not mentally burning out.

Yes - young players could learn a lot from them. But how many players could play at the highest level after taking an extended break like Venus and Serena can?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread, stats are very helpful! Did any of these player serve as well as Serena?

The "power server" type of female player is relatively new. Although there were a few big servers in the past, the Williams sisters revolutionized serving for women's tennis. Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport in the 1990s were the predecessors to the Williams sisters (and Davenport was only a few years ahead of the Williams). Neither Seles nor Capriati had a particularly strong serve, both of them added power to the baseline game, but not to the serve.

One of the bigger servers before the Williams sisters was Brenda Schultz-McCarthy who played from the mid-80's until the late 90's. But the rest of her game was relatively average (kind of like a predecessor to Sabine Lisicki) so she wasn't particularly noteworthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the stats! I do believe their side careers (was it Serena who either opened or was thinking of opening a nail salon at one point?) helps with the mental aspect as well. They are not 100% focused on tennis and that also helps with not mentally burning out.

Yes - young players could learn a lot from them. But how many players could play at the highest level after taking an extended break like Venus and Serena can?

Serena got licensed to do nails in order to open a salon. She also has a very popular clothing line on HSN. I've read that Venus runs a highly regarded Interior Design firm in Florida.

These new players I think play way too much. Kerber has played between 20-26 tournaments this year and Serena has only played 6 or 8 I think.

[Anonymous]

I still think she's awesome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the stats! I do believe their side careers (was it Serena who either opened or was thinking of opening a nail salon at one point?) helps with the mental aspect as well. They are not 100% focused on tennis and that also helps with not mentally burning out.

Yes - young players could learn a lot from them. But how many players could play at the highest level after taking an extended break like Venus and Serena can?

Serena got licensed to do nails in order to open a salon. She also has a very popular clothing line on HSN. I've read that Venus runs a highly regarded Interior Design firm in Florida.

These new players I think play way too much. Kerber has played between 20-26 tournaments this year and Serena has only played 6 or 8 I think.

Serena has had limited playing time because she's been injured on and off for much of the year. It's been mentioned a few times that some of her early season woes were because she did not have enough match play due to the injuries. Serena has played about half of a "normal" schedule for her which is already pretty light by current standards.

[Anonymous]

I am excited to see new talent, it seems to me that Serena is owned by too many glitterati. It is also a drag to have the announcers all but call the game at the first serve for her.