Wimbledon 2010 *Spoilers in here*

[Pigeon_Killer]

My school used to leave nets up during the summer so I took advantage of them whenever I could. Wasn't very good (never got out of the habit of punching the ball rather than following through with my shots) but enjoyed smacking serves as hard as I could

 

[Merlin5]

He also hit more winners

True that. But they both shared the same end game. Knocked out.

 

[McBain]

Oh dear, another year for Murray. will he ever do it?

Let's seriously hope not, good lad Nadal.

 

[marc2003]

anybody daft enough to bet against serena this afternoon?

 

[Merlin5]

Not me but I do hope Zvonereva beats her. Only because she's quite hot.

 

[gambitt]

Serena slightly better in the first set although as usual it's mostly down to her first serve, got the break thanks to a lucky net cord going her way.

 

[Freefaller]

I rather like Zvonereva like her style of play. Serena scares me

 

[gambitt]

Bepa currently 49/1 on betfair, think I'll have a play on that and hope Serena's first serve percentage drops!

 

[Merlin5]

Damn, she's being outplayed by Williams. I think it's all over for Zvonereva
in the next 10 minutes. Which is a shame because I like her screams as she hits each ball.

 

[marc2003]

all vera has to to is break serena's serve twice in this set to stay in it. easy.

 

[Freefaller]

Serena made it look easy! Champion in less than 80 mins!

 

[qwerty]

So we're going to have a huge black man win the women's singles and a small Spanish girl win the men's singles

 

[Nimzicki]

So we're going to have a huge black man win the women's singles and a small Spanish girl win the men's singles

In what way is 6 foot 1 Nadal possibly a small girl?

 

[semi-pro waster]

In what way is 6 foot 1 Nadal possibly a small girl?

In the same way that the 5'9" Williams is a huge black man...

 

[qwerty]

Oh noes! My joke failed

Still, wouldn't it be good to see a match between Serena and Rafa? I reckon Rafa would win fairly easily but Serena's serve is just so good at the moment that I think she'd push him quite hard...

 

[semi-pro waster]

In a modern day reprise of the Margaret Court/Billie Jean King vs Bobby Riggs matches? It would certainly be interesting to see what, if anything, has changed although Bobby Riggs was well past his prime at the time and Nadal is certainly in his so I'd expect a pretty convincing win for Nadal. Serena Williams vs some of the other players in the mens top 100 would be a lot closer I'd think though.

 

[Destination]

In a modern day reprise of the Margaret Court/Billie Jean King vs Bobby Riggs matches? It would certainly be interesting to see what, if anything, has changed although Bobby Riggs was well past his prime at the time and Nadal is certainly in his so I'd expect a pretty convincing win for Nadal. Serena Williams vs some of the other players in the mens top 100 would be a lot closer I'd think though.

Doubt it.
She wouldn't be able to get to most of the serves, even second serves would be faster than anything she faces currently. Placement wise she would be fine, but speed and power she wouldn't stand a chance. I am sure there are some she could beat on a day, but for consistenty she wouldn't stay high in the ratings at all.
She's not that much of a man.

 

[Dimi]

Nadal to win today quite easily i'd say, straight set victory.

 

[chrisd]

I reckon Rafa would win fairly easily but Serena's serve is just so good at the moment that I think she'd push him quite hard...

Nadal would crush her. The difference in standard between the top male and top female tennis players is massive.

 

[gambitt]

Serena Williams vs some of the other players in the mens top 100 would be a lot closer I'd think though.

Could you name a few of them?

Any man in the top 100 would beat her 6-0 6-0. Any man in the top 2000 would beat her easily. In fact any decent junior who's been playing this week would beat her as well. Speed and power aside, the men play with so many different spins and slices compared to the women (who are mostly ball bashers) that the gulf in class is huge.

In 1998 Serena and Venus challenged a guy called Karsten Braasch who was ranked 203 at the time. They played 1 set, he beat Serena 6-1 and Venus 6-2. He only served at 50% power and his warm up consisted of a round of golf and a couple of beers earlier that afternoon. He also used to smoke.

Chris Evert admitted that when she was no.1 she used to get beaten by her brother who only played at college level. Henin also tried to play a match vs a guy who was never even a pro and lost as well.