‘Beating a Lesser Crew of Opponent’ – Jay Williams Debates Over the Best Player in Tennis History Between Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams

After Serena Williams announced her retirement from tennis, fans on social media hailed the American tennis star as the Goat (greatest of all time). Meanwhile, there have been many debates regarding the greatest female tennis players between Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, and a few other tennis players.

During ESPN’s First Take show, former basketball player Jay Williams and popular radio personality Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo had a fiery debate over the Goat debate, as they both presented solid arguments.

Who’s the Goat between Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams?

First Take host, Molly Qerim asked whether Serena is the greatest female tennis player of all time. In reply, Russo said, “It’s debatable. Because you have to put Martina (Navratilova) in the mix, who for my money, pound for pound the best players I’ve ever seen… Martina lost 8 Grand Slam finals to all-time Great players. She lost two to (Steffi) Graf, she lost one to (Monica) Seles, she lost four to Chris Evert and she lost one to Tracy Austin.“

“Her period of tennis in the 80s in my opinion was much deeper and much better than who’s Serena’s able to beat in the last 20 years… Serena, in this period of her dominance, which has been remarkable, there has never been in my opinion a top ten player in historical purposes, who she has gone up against,” Russo further said. 

In reply, Jay Williams said, “That doesn’t minimize her talent.“

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Later, the former basketball player said, “Martina Navratilova as a woman faced a lot of challenges as well, but I think to add to that as a young black woman from Compton about breaking those barriers, to me adds to the overall greatness in conjunction with the talent.“

Then, Russo further said, “Do you think she is gonna beat Martina 17, 18, 19 times in a row in the 1980s? There’s not a chance. No way, Martina was great.“

However, Williams pointed out that Serena would have beaten Navratilova on plenty of occasions. In the end, Russo had to throw some hypothetical situations and ended the debate with lots of laughs.

What do the statistics say?

In terms of Grand Slam singles titles, Serena is far ahead of Navratilova, as she won 23 major titles; whereas, Navratilova won 18. However, if you look at the overall Grand Slam tally including doubles and mixed doubles, Navratilova won 59 titles and Serena falls way behind with 39 major titles.

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So far in her career, Serena Williams won 73 singles titles and 23 doubles titles in her career. In contrast, Navratilova won 167 singles titles and 177 doubles titles.

Moreover, many believe Navratilova is the greatest all-format player of all time. Whereas, Serena’s physical prowess was unmatched throughout her career.

Who do you think is the GOAT between Serena and Navratilova?