If Serena’s career ends w/23 Grand Slam titles, she’ll still hold the record bc everyone knows Court’s “record” is BS [A comprehensive Twitter Breakdown]
People think Margaret Court is hating on Serena, but she’s right; No one respects Court’s 24 Grand Slam titles
If Serena’s career ends w/23 Grand Slam titles, she’ll still hold the record bc everyone knows Court’s “record” is BS
A threadhttps://t.co/r2dKQfB8Up
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) September 5, 2022
View Reddit by SnooRabbits3388 – View Source
>**Court only won 11 titles in the “Open Era.”**
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>**In the history of tennis no other woman held a Grand Slam title without having to play.**
**Court had two IN A ROW.**
**But she didn’t WIN THEM like Serena**
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>**“Pre-Open Era” tennis means Margaret Court didn’t play against the best tennis players**
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>See, before 1968, **only amateurs could play in the tournaments we call “Grand Slam” tournaments.** They didn’t pay money so sometimes you ended up playing whoever showed up.
Seriously, like in one GS tounament, **Court dragged Jill Rook, the number one tennis player in the world…Table tennis.**
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>**11 of Margaret Court’s titles are from the Australian Open.**
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>back then, the Australian Open **wasn’t really considered a major.**
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>It was essentially a closed competition for people from Australia. No one went over there to play. **For instance, Billie Jean King, one of Court’s biggest rivals, played in ONE Australian Open before the open era.**
**Players didn’t regularly start going to Aussie open until the 80s.**
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>in **the 1965 Australian Open, Court’s opponent couldn’t finish the match so they gave Court the trophy.**
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>That’s right.
When it comes to tennis, there is nothing that Court has achieved that Serena hasn’t surpassed… against BETTER competition.
That’s probably why Serena doesn’t “admire” Court.
She already did that
That’s one part of the story.
Another side of the matter is that, as often happens with arrogant, entitled youngsters, Williams has little awareness or appreciation of how much she owes to pioneer champions like Court and King — in fact, how much tennis and indeed the feminist cause owe to them.
Comparing eras, especially in tennis where the game is drastically different than previous eras, is always fraught with peril. Margaret Court accomplished several things that Serena didn’t, namely winning more grand slam titles as well as winning the calendar slam and winning the “boxed slam” twice, which means singles, doubles and mixed titles in every open tournament twice. That indicates to me that Court dominated her era in a way that Serena did not. However, just watching highlights even from Stefi Graff’s era shows how the players today are faster, stronger, more athletic than in all previous eras. So it is totally fair to consider Serena Williams to be the greatest female tennis player of all time since someone like Court would have been lucky to win a point off her.