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serious question.... Could Serena be competitive with Federer?

M

Mister Apoc

Demigod of Troll Threads
3600.jpg


if both are at their best?
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
She would get wrecked by anyone in the "top 100 men". I wonder how "low" you would have to go until she would actually beat any male tennis player.

Quote from wiki:
Another 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 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 of bottles of ice cold lager". The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park, after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. 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" and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much easier and put spin on the ball that female players can't handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350.
 
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Tschumi

Tschumi

Member
No i don't think so. No shame in that, though.. if she even got him to 4 sets it would be unprecedented for her, let alone 5, and Fed is the GOAT, hardly any men, many of whom have stronger serves, faster movement and bigger ground strokes than Serena, could cope with him. If he can keep Nadal out of Wimbledon for as long as he did, he can beat Serena.

Also, there's the obsession with power that's messed with the women's game for years now.. it's why grand slam results for women are often some variation in 6-1, 1-6, 6-1, why many women - Stosur comes to mind - won grand slams then sunk back into the pack, because they're just pounding the ball as hard as they can to please their coaches and can barely put any shape or touch on it. Naomi Osaka is such a big deal because she appears to be able to combine power and finesse with a somewhat stable mentality (I'd love to see a serve and volley women's player beat the world on the back of craft over power)

Serena has been allowed to just camp at the baseline and cannon away shots for ages (don't get me wrong she's a fantastic retriever, but at nowhere near the intensity of Fed or a number of his contemporaries) - Fed would drop the ball just over the net more often than trying to exchange strokes, so she'd run harder than she's ever had to run.. over up to 5 sets?

Can't see it, can't see her or any other women's player since the 90s having the court craft to solve even one of the problems fed would pose.

mcz117chief said:
She would get wrecked by anyone in the "top 100 men". I wonder how "low" you would have to go until she would actually beat any male tennis player.

Quote from wiki:
Another 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 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 of bottles of ice cold lager". The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park, after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. 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" and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much easier and put spin on the ball that female players can't handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350.
Click to expand...
I mean to be fair they were wee little tykes at that stage, Serena especially, compared to how she'd be in the mid 00s. But yeah
 
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Aesius

Aesius

Member
She would struggle to consistently return his serves. Women can hit fast serves too but the average serve Serena faces is 20-25 mph slower than what she would face vs Federer.
 
Ozzy Onya A2Z

Ozzy Onya A2Z

Member
mcz117chief said:
She would get wrecked by anyone in the "top 100 men". I wonder how "low" you would have to go until she would actually beat any male tennis player.

Quote from wiki:
Another 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 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 of bottles of ice cold lager". The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park, after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. 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" and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much easier and put spin on the ball that female players can't handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350.
Click to expand...

Glad to see another tennis fan around GAF still, that is the only "real battle of the sexes match", there have been others but just exhibition matches where guys were fucking about. We used to have a nice little tennis OT going, now I gotta check if it's still around.

As for Serena vs Fed or blokes in general it's just a whole different ball game and it's a definitive no she could not beat Fed. Serena is arguably the GOAT in women's tennis and very well deserved, brilliant player with the record to back it up. However, against blokes it's a non-competition in the top tier of play. Serena and Venus would struggle against men in the ranges of 500-1500 ranking even. The stark differences in male vs female athletic abilities are too great in a sport like tennis e.g. the sheer speed of the ball hitting, the reaction and time to get to the ball, the spin abilities etc etc. Serving for example is not even close by comparison. Compare the absolute highest speed servers recorded in ATP competition tennis -

Men = 260Kms
Women = 220Kms.

Serena and Venus both top out at 200Kms where Fed is 230Kms. Their second serve speeds only have far larger differences and less spin, variety and placement etc. 15% difference across the board is even being super conservative, the guys reaction 15% faster, move 15% faster, hit 15% harder etc. Imagine asking this question in boxing or MMA where the weight class is a 75Kg woman vs a 100Kg man. It's just one of those sports where even a supreme female athlete like Serena just cannot compete against the males.
 
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R

Rival

Gold Member
Not a chance but in fairness to Serena there hasn’t been too many top men’s players that could beat him either.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Nope. Men have been proven time and time again to be superior to women on a professional level when it comes to sports.
INCUBASE said:
Mental gymnastics
Click to expand...
You've improved.
 
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AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
McKenro answered this question years ago on Lettermen and people were shocked when he was honest. Men destroy women in sports.
 
Ozzy Onya A2Z

Ozzy Onya A2Z

Member
I thought I recalled Serena answering this herself, skip to 3.20 if the jump doesn't work -



Says she would lose to Andy Murray 6-0 6-0 in 10-15 minutes. Tip: Murray isn't in the same class as Fed either.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
It's interesting how "greatest athlete" is shifting to most accomplished athlete as opposed to ya know...the greatest athlete.

No one in 2005 would understand this Serena is the GOAT tennis player talk.
 
Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
no, doubt even significant amounts of drugs can close the gap

turns out life isn't fair and there's tremendous physiological differences between sexes
 
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INC

INC

Member
Found the best opponent, he's the best, you wouldnt believe, so many people couldn't believe how Good he was, he invented tennis,
Hes in amazing shape, the best doctors have ever seen
jwSRfFA.jpg
 
CAB_Life

CAB_Life

Member
No, and I'm fairly certain she already made a comment regarding her placement vs. men already (and was crucified for it, naturally).
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
There's a reason why so many performance enhancing drugs mimic the effects of Testosterone! Its an immense difference maker in all aspects of physical activity, many of which persist for a long, long time under normal health/fitness circumstances.
 
stn

stn

Member
No, but there's no shame in that since prime Federer is one of the best tennis players ever - and you could argue he is the best (I give it to Novak but I can be swayed between Novak, Federer, and Nadal).
 
M

michaelius

Banned
Mistershine. said:
I'm pretty sure there are no sports where women can compete with men.
Click to expand...

Chess

But more seriously there are separate categories for a reason - there are biological diffrences (testosterone level etc) coming from thousands years of evolution that cannot be changed in a span of years.
 
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