Australian Open Preview: Venus vs Serena, Federal vs Nadal
Australian Open Preview: Venus vs Serena, Federal vs Nadal
On the surface, boxing and tennis couldn’t be more different. One is a bloodsport, fed mostly by athletes with few other options. The other is a bastion of privilege, where heavy, pre-pubescent financial investment is almost a prerequisite for success. I saw almost, because the women’s finals will feature the two most notable exceptions to that rule.
Aside from the constant threat of death or decapitation, boxing and tennis are far more similar than they appear. Both are individual sports, tests of stamina and focus more than pure athletic talent. Both require superhuman discipline and attention to details. In both, the best are separated from the rest by only the slightest of margins. Like in boxing, the best tennis player in the world can lose at any time. That’s what makes sustained dominance at the top of either such a remarkable achievement.
This weekend four of the best players to ever step onto a court will meet in the 2017 Australian Open Finals. This weekend will be a testament to their remarkable skills, mental fortitude and staying power. All four are over 30, and three are over 35. Each paif of names are inextricably linked, like Borg and McEnroe, or Frazier and Ali. One is among sport’s most bitter and compelling rivalries, delivering some of the most compelling tennis matches in history. The other has birthed mostly duds, albeit for good reason.
At 3:30AM on Saturday morning, Venus Williams and Serena Williams will meet in the finals of the 2017 Australian Open. It will be the ninth time the sisters have met in a Grand Slam Final and the first since 2009, with younger sister Serena holding a 6–2 advantage. When their father Richard Williams promised that his girls would rule the tennis world before they had won a pro match, even he couldn’t have known that dominance would last two decades.
All that without the benefit of private lessons and expensive residential tennis camps, the typical training grounds for the sport’s prodigies. Richard Williams learned the sport, taught his daughters himself, and wound up the greatest tennis coach ever judging by results, much to the chagrin of the tennis establishment.
For years I have argued that Serena is not just the greatest woman tennis player of all-time, but the greatest player, period. That argument has gotten more traction of late thanks to her near-miss of the calendar year Grand Slam in 2014. More controversially, I maintain Venus is easily the second-greatest women’s player of all-time, ahead of Steffi Graf, Margaret Court and the rest.
That argument rests on the notion that only Venus ever even posed a threat to Serena’s supremacy. Apart from losing the 1997 U.S. Open final to Martina Hingis, Venus has only lost to one other woman in a Grand Slam Final: Serena, six times. Throw in their other matches earlier in Slams and the year-end tour championships, and Venus is within shouting distance of Graf’s record based only on tournaments she lost to her sister.
But matches between the sisters, who have always been close, have never produced the most compelling tennis. Serena seems to find her killer instinct more easily against her sibling, while the older sister in Venus always seems to dull her aggression, typically the hallmark of her game. Serena is usually the safe pick to win, but who wouldn’t love to see Venus win her first Australian Open, and earn her first Grand Slam title since beating Serena at Wimbledon in 2008.
Regardless, this might be the last time we see these two legends play each other in a big tournament final again, rendering it appointment viewing. Either way history will be made, since a win for Serena would finally eclipse Graf’s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam titles. And no matter who triumphs, we can count on the loser being the winner’s biggest fan.
Much less hype is needed to sell Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal in the men’s Australian Open final on Sunday at 3:30AM. Simply put, this is the most celebrated sports rivalry of the 21st century. No two players in tennis have pushed each other to the same heights as Federer and Nadal, who along with Novak Djokovic have ruled the sport since the turn of the century. While their most memorable exchanges have taken place at Wimbledon, these two have battled across every surface and continent, along the way entrenching themselves in the sport’s pantheon.