Former WTA No. 1 Serena Williams would not be able to win a single game against Roger Federer if the two squared-off against each other on a tennis court.
Federer and Serena are considered as the two greatest players on the men’s and women’s circuits respectively.
Together, Federer and Serena have collected 43 Grand Slam titles with the Swiss maestro winning 20 and Williams claiming 23. While Nadal and Djokovic trail Federer with their 16 and 12 Major trophies, Serena has no active challengers with Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova way behind with their seven and five Grand Slam titles.
Over the years fans have urged Federer and Serena to challenge each other in a one-off contest, but the duo have successfully opposed such plans until now.
However, tennis fan Aleksa Milovanovic, in a post on Quora, has explained that Serena would struggle to even compete against Federer. Milovanovic backed up his comments with a detailed analysis of past clashes between men and women.
“This is what’s known as a Battle of the Sexes,” he wrote.
“In 1973, a retired 55-year-old Bobby Riggs defeated the imperious Margaret Court 6–2, 6–1.
“She was ranked #1 at the time, and decided that he was rude to women and needed to be taught a lesson. Unfortunately, Riggs won the match and was paraded about Sports Illustrated and Time magazines.
“Bille Jean King asked for a rematch. Riggs accepted and lost in a best-of-5 match in 3 sets.
“That was a long retired, alcoholic smoker who challenged the 2 best players of the time to a tennis match.
“Later, Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova had a match. Navratilova was allowed to hit the doubles alleys and Connors was allowed only 1 serve. Connors won 7–5, 6–2.
“Finally, in 2003, Karsten Brasch challenged the Williams sisters after they stated they could defeat any men’s player ranked outside the top 200.
“Ranked 203, Brasch challenged them. They accepted.
“Brasch then beat them both handily, despite being a heavy drinker and smoker. He won 6–1 and 6–2.
“The sisters then claimed, after the loss, that they could beat any man ranked outside the world’s top 350. Brasch disagreed- saying ‘500 and above, no chance.’
“All this is to say, Roger Federer is the greatest men’s tennis player ever. He isn’t anything like Riggs or Brasch- he has some of the best training regiments that anyone could ask for.
“His strokes are imperious and he hits powerfully. Williams was unable to beat Brasch- or even make it competitive. How on earth would she fare against Roger Federer?
“My guess is she’d be very lucky to win a game in best of 5, and she’d probably win less than 20 points.”
