“GOAT” has been the buzzword in sport over the past weekend at the Australian Open.
You’ll see people on social media even adding the little animal in their tweets and posts to describe Serena Williams and Roger Federer as the “Greatest Of All Time” when it comes to tennis.
That is the case statistically, with Federer clinching his 18th Grand Slam singles title and Serena her 23rd – both leading the winners’ list in the Open Era, with Serena just one behind Margaret Court on the overall standings.
She could even be considered one of the greatest sport stars across the board – all sports, male and female. Serena has broken down so many barriers to become the icon that she is today.
Apart from being a black athlete in a predominantly white sport, she has transcended the sport itself with her off-field activities, including a fashion label, voice work in movies and reality TV. She is arguably the most popular female sportsperson in the world at the moment.
But is Serena Williams a better tennis player than Steffi Graf?
The German wunderkind turned pro at the age of 13, and won 22 Grand Slams in a glittering career, starting with the 1987 French Open when she beat Martina Navratilova 6-4 4-6 8-6 just a week shy of her 18th birthday.
Graf has the numbers to compete with Serena in terms of titles won – 22 Grand Slams to Serena’s 23, 107 WTA Tour titles to the 72 by the American – and so we could go on.
Don’t forget that Graf also claimed the “Golden Slam” in 1988 – Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open and Olympic gold (in Seoul).
Her style of play was remarkable at the time. Her quick feet around the court meant that she could run around most balls to deliver that lethal forehand, either down the line or crosscourt. While she didn’t often pull out a top-spin backhand, she used her mesmerising slow slice to great effect.
Graf’s serve was one of her prime weapons as well, and her agility across the court and power from the baseline was too much to handle for her opponents.
With the golden ponytail always bobbing around, Graf was ahead of her time as she dominated women’s tennis for nearly a decade, until knee and back injuries took their toll in the late 1990s.
She was a relative recluse in comparison to Williams off the court, with the focus always on the game as she didn’t enjoy the spotlight – something she has continued with in her retirement, having married former men’s No 1 Andre Agassi.
Serena just started making her way into the top 10 when Graf called it quits in 1999, and they actually faced each other twice that year, with the record at 1-1.
Having also been part of tennis academies for most of her youth, like Graf, Serena won her first major at the 1999 US Open, and then proceeded to win 22 more majors, all the way to this past weekend’s seventh Australian Open crown when she beat sister Venus.
She held all four majors at the same time in what was dubbed the “Serena Slam” – winning the French, Wimbledon and US in 2002, and the Australian in January 2003, but never did it in a calendar year.
Serena’s game has always centred around her big serve and heavy groundstrokes, with her backhand almost as powerful as her forehand. Regularly playing doubles has also aided her net play, although she prefers to whack it from the back.
Her strength from the baseline is immense, and enough to cover for the fact that she is not as quick as Graf was.
With the records and dominance in the game unquestioned for both players, perhaps looking at the quality of their rivals would help to separate the two.
Graf arguably had the tougher time – the likes of Navratilova, Chris Evert and Monica Seles her fiercest competitors, while there were other top opponents such as Gabriela Sabatini, and later Jennifer Capriati, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport.
Venus and Hingis were the women to beat following Graf’s retirement, and Serena also had to contend with Capriati, Davenport and Justine Henin, as well as Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s hard to say definitively whether Serena or Steffi was the greatest.
Serena has been reluctant to speak about the issue in the past, and probably summed it up best in Melbourne at the weekend: “I definitely think so (that she is one of the best). I mean, between Martina (Navratilova), myself, Steffi Graf, hands down we are leading that conversation.”
* Who do you think is the greatest female tennis player in history? Let us know on Twitter @IOLsport or on our Facebook page – IOL Sport.
@ashfakmohamed