Let's get real here Venus has a 7-2 lead against­ Henin, Serena has a 7-2 against Clijsters and she leads­ Henin just like Venus leads Clijsters! I don't­ where they are talking from cos the records speaks­ themeselves! It's pointless to even argue! Serena­ has 11 singls Grand Slams, Venus has 7, Henin 7,­ Clijsters 2! Give credit where it's due, Serena is­ simply the best! Serena, Venus, Henin, Sharapova,­ Davenport, Kuzzy, Clijsters

A 6-2,6-0 (now that's pathetic) without the usual­ handicap Henin is used to receiving is hardly an­ excuse. and btw 96 excuses? come'on Bobito you do­ need to seriously brush up your Maths...

r3688 - 96 different lame excuses, one for each of­ Serena's defeats. Pathetic.

Say isabelle I agree totally with you about the older­ players, they are so much more interesting than the­ current youngsters.

Let's also have Agassi &­ Sampras & Guga on the men's side.

I am soooooooooooooo. disappointed that Henin is­ returning to tennis. Wats up Justine couldn't stand­ Clijsters stealing your thunder??. I know wat why­ don't we have all the older tennis players return­ and get rid of the current ones??? Or we should ask all­ the Russian ones to retire because according to Mr Reid­ they have no bottle for a fight.

It is completely fair to say Serena was affected badly­ by her sister's death from 2004 and this kind of­ traumatic events take years to recover so the 2-3 years­ in between were Serena's lost years. When she won­ the USO again in 2008 after 5 years, a lot of­ commentators commented about what happened in the past­ 5 years. Clearly Serena was depressed and distracted­ and regain her full focus in 2008 when she whitewashed­ Henin 6-2, 6-0.

So now that Serena's finally­ gotten over the traumas and other eating disorders, may­ the better player win when (we as tennis fans can­ hardly wait for that) she & Henin meet (pls tennis­ gods grant us that wish) in FO 2010.

r388 we are not just talking about Henin, but Serena­ has been beaten by players BEFORE reaching the semis or­ finals of the French Open, so that she would not even­ play Henin. Now has she been injured or off form­ every French Open, her injuries and off form appear to­ be present only after she has been beaten, whilst­ publicly stating before the US Open in 2007 that she­ was fit and ready to play. Her lack of preparation for­ events shows complete disdain for other competitors and­ tournament organisers whilst her sullen post match­ interviews which she attends after defeats are because­ she doesn't want and can't afford to pay the­ fine- a classless individual.

PLUS like Seles, Capriati and the Williams­ sisters,Sharapova will fight ot the last point. Now­ that's a great champion kind of personality that­ the sport can be proud of!!!

Congrats to Reed at least he's right that Sharapova­ is in devastating form thrashing a dangerous player­ like Kleybanova 6-2 in the decider.

When­ Sharapova's on form she's easily among the top­ 3 or 4 players in the world, and she's an asset to­ women's tennis becos she's so watchable.

annemcnaughtan

When Henin beat Serena at the 2007 USO­ she was still nursing the Wimby injury and without a­ backhand and clearly off-form. This was proven in ­ early 2008 when on similar hardcourt Serena annilihate­ Henin 6-2, 6-0, this despite Henin supposedly rated the­ hottest player going into 2008.

Serena & henin­ played only 1 FO agst each other and we know what­ happen there. We also know that Serena was injured from­ August 2003 and took almost a year to recover­ subsequent to which she suffered the tragic and­ traumatic effects of her sister's Yetunde's­ murder which took her years to recover her focus,­ caused her depression and eating disorders. Together­ with Venus' injuries and similar traumas allowed­ Henin to break through.

I hope Serena & Henin­ will have a chance to meet at the FO in 2010. Obviously­ they didnt have that chance in 2008 becos Henin after­ being embarassingly bageled by Sharapova and Serena­ retired rather abruptly without even defending her FO­ title just 3 weeks away. Pretty similar to Henin's­ abrupt retirement in the 2006AO agst Mauresmo after­ trailing almost a bagel 1st set and 0-4 down.

...especially considering that Sharapova is at the­ moment just about as injured as Venus or recovering­ from injury as Venus is?

Or is it a case of To Each­ His Own?

r 3688 Has Serena Williams been off form or injured­ every time she has been beaten-of course not. She has­ only one win in many years at Roland Garros, where­ Henin reigned supreme. Henin was considered by many top­ players both male and female to be the most versatile­ player in the women's game. if you consider all­ round skill to represent the nadir of the game, and­ power slogging to be the apex that's your choice,­ if so we are condemned to further years of base line­ power slogging which requires mere physical strength as­ opposed to the mental and physical agility of the all­ court game. When Henin beat Williams at the US Open,­ she was neither injured or off form-but true to her own­ view of herself, Henin played lucky shots and she beat­ herself - absolute rubbish she was outclassed on the­ day by the better player. I like many players but my­ support of them does not make me blind to the­ attributes of others.

I am also a Sharapova fan (such a lovely looking girl­ even when not on song!!) but tennis fans will no doubt­ remember that Venus destroyed Sharapova in their last 3­ meetings over the past 2 years. So how can Venus be so­ lowly ranked in terms of Reed''s 2010 ranking­ and Slam winning potential?

PLUS in the 2008 Top 8 WTA Championships

Venus was the­ only player entering the finals with a perfect 3-0 win­ round robin record.

Sorry but can pls please not just­ ignore actual results. At least half of the Top 8­ field would give an arm or aleg to have venus'­ results of the past 15 months

Simon Reed is a confused analyst. Sharapova in­ devastating form in one game is less impressive in the­ second meeting with opponebt loosing 6-2, no wonder­ there is problem with sponsors of the events

PLUS in winning the 2008 Top World Championships Venus­ was the only player with a perfect 3-0 win record­ going into the final.
Sorry but can we pls not ignore­ actual results.

my apologies to Reed for calling a spade a spade.

But­ in the past 15 months & 6 Slams , Venus has­ contested 3 Slam finals, won 1 of them, won the 2008­ hardcourt season-ending Championships for the Top 8­ players despite being in less than desirable physical­ form.

How on Earth can anyone write-off Venus chances­ of winning another Slam in the next 12 months?

Without the shadow of a doubt the worst period of­ women's tennis was when Henin was on top becos the­ Williams sisters were injured and off-form off-focused­ Sharapova still a starlet and Henin was the gap filler­ with upcoming starlet Kuznetsova as her greatest­ competitor. That was the nadir, that was how bad it­ got when brittle Kuznetsova was like a Nadal to­ Henin's Federer and Clijsters and Dementieva were­ the game's biggest chokers.
Another joke is the­ comment that Venus will never win another Slam,­ exactly the same sentiments echoed by another­ wellknown tennis writer who has become synonymous with­ inconsistent logic.
How can anyone so conveniently­ forget that 2008 Wimby champ Venus won last year's­ seasonending WTA Championships on hardcourt, was a­ 2008 USO finalist and a Wimby finalist this year­ despite obvious knee injury.
instead of giving weight­ to such strong ACTUAL performance credentials, Reed­ actually choose to speculate that Henin who retired­ after being whipped mercilessly by Sharapova, Serena­ & Safina and hasnt played a WTA match since is a­ better bet?
Would Clijsters have won on her own if­ Serena hasnt been defaulted twice? Doubt iit based on­ Clijsters' chker history and Serena's champion­ mentality in prevailing in the face of adversity.­ Serena had broken Clijsters several times in the 2nd­ set, it was an extremely close match throughout and­ Serena was playing better and better. My view is­ Clijsters wouldnt have won the match on her own and­ then Serena would have held, take the 2nd set and then­ rout choker Clijsters 6-1 in the 3rd If an injured­ Venus can bagel Clijsters in the 2nd, Clijsters will­ not stand a chance agst a fit Venus in 2010

I think Simon Reed has a point here, unlike most of his­ other posts he presents an argument rather than the­ glorification of his favourite player i.e. Murray.­ It's true most of the girls he mentions Ivanovic­ particularly do not look as if they are enjoying their­ tennis and she in particular with her fist in the­ opponents face after every good shot looks rather­ ordinary. But things can and do change, Dementieva had­ a good year in her terms, beating players she had not­ before etc. However, as we've said many times­ before they all have the same game plan, and until some­ of them adapt and develop a different game so that they­ can outwit rather than out blast their opponent off the­ court, they will remain in the doldrums hitting the­ ball as fiercely as they can, only to see it come back­ with interest. That's why so many are injured-­ Sharapova's shoulder etc. Henin and Clijsters bring­ variety to the game, and these girls must adapt just as­ Henin had to learn to deal with power, they must learn­ to deal with skill.

This is just another piece of rubbish poetd here again­ by a so called specialist or great analyst.I don't­ even know how they got to be writing articles like this­ an eurosport accepted them to post it on their­ blog.
There is no way you can rank Serena fourth behind­ players like Clijster,Henin,Sharapova in any grand slam­ taking into consideration her hunger,thirst,and killer­ instincts.She is fiercely dangerous when it comes to­ slams and I believe that if the ranking was based only­ on slams and masters events,she will be number 1 for­ arleast 4 years except be caught up injury.Look at the­ WTA race points for 2009 and you will see that she is­ closely second to Safina who has won almost all the­ smaller events this year.If i may predict the ranking­ for next year taking into consideration that no one­ ends up being injured then it might closely look like­ this;
1. Serena
2. Henin
3. Sharapova
4. Venus
5.­ Clijster
And the others in any other.