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Who Wold Win??

  • Martina

    Votes: 104 43.2%
  • Serena

    Votes: 137 56.8%

Martina Navratilova VS Serena Williams

35K views 214 replies 116 participants last post by  MrTrick 
#1 · (Edited)



Martina:

"I Would be inspired if I could play Serena Williams on that US Open stadium court.
The atmosphere with both of us in our primes would be electric.
The key for me would be to neutralize her power and get into the points on her serve, to make her hit more balls than she is used to hitting in most of her matches.
I would need to keep the balls as low as possible, and I would tr to hit short to bring her forward, and then come in deep going the other way.
Now she is going backwards as I come in to the net.

On my serve I would not be able to serve-and-volley all of the time, but I would do it a lot.
I would serve into her body, mix it up a lot.
I served-and-volleyed a lot against Monica Seles and she had the best return in the game then, and it was effective. I believe I could deal with Serena's pace.
The harder the ball comes to me the faster it tends to come back.
And I would try to give her a lot of off-paced balls.
Getting into the rally would be another key for me.
I could see Serena and me having a very close match, something like 6-4 in the third set, with maybe a few tie-breaks before that.
There would be very few service breaks and I could imagine a set without any breaks at all.
It would be exciting because we are two of the best athletes tennis has ever seen and the crowd would respond positively to that."





Mark Preston
American journalist, USTA Magazine

"There has never been a player I've admired more than Martina Navratilova, both for her talent and her remarkable competitive ability. Born in Czechoslovakia, but most assuredly made in America, Navratilova did nothing less than change the face of women's tennis with her aggressive game, unparalleled commitment to fitness and unquenchable desire to be the best. The only other woman on par with Navratilova in terms of mental toughness and sheer fighting spirit is Serena Williams, the greatest pure competitor of this era of women's tennis. For that reason alone, it would be a joy to see these two go head-to-head on the game's biggest stage; Navratilova's precise serve-and-volley game against Williams' punishing power. The exchanges would be staggering in their brilliance; two fighters engaged in the sort of heavyweight slugfest that usually has ropes around it. Without a doubt, this one goes the distance, as neither woman gives an inch. In three, it's Navratilova."
 
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#203 ·
Martina on grass. Hard - Serena.
 
#205 ·
There are too many wide ranging variables involved when comparing such distant eras, why will people ask these questions without any further assumptions?

Serena would probably not even win a single slam if she started her career on pair with Martina and with wooden racquets, her greatest weapons the serve and return would be totally useless.

Likewise, Martina´s serve and volley and lack of ground game wouldn´t make much damage in this era of super fast serves and returns.

If we take one of them to the other´s era and assume that player would grow and be trained with the necessary game, there would be again too many variables, like would Serena even care of playing tennis at all if she can´t bring her physical advantage to her favor? or would Martina have enough patience and motivation to sustain the necessary ground game required for the later era?.
 
#209 ·
One thing that always interests me in these conversations is the assumption that whichever player (from a different era) is being compared to Serena, is presumed to have the ability and resolve to adapt to the different times, while Serena is presumed to be little more than a brute specimen who couldn't succeed in different times at all.

Just goes to show that even with a Mensa-level tennis IQ, some will always see Serena as merely a muscle mountain who lucked out with regards to when she was born. I'm sad for those people, but elated to not be one of them.
 
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