Happy Retirement Serena

It was with some sadness that I saw the news that Serena Williams has decided to retire. I wish her well.

In my opinion, Serena is probably the greatest womens tennis player of all time. The trophy tables may not quite bear that out, but she has twice taken some lengthy time out to focus on other things, and then stepped back and been instantly amongst the very best players. Had she not taken those breaks, the tables would likely look different. The only downside being that she, and her sister, were so good and so dominant for so long that they rendered womens tennis extremely dull for a long time. But that's not their issue.

We've actually been extremely lucky  to have been viewing in an era that has seen arguably the greatest mens player and the greatest womens player of all time playing, and indeed an era in which that greatest mens player has been challenged by multiple contenders for that same spot - for my money Federer is still the best ever, but Nadal and Djokovic are both exceptionally good, and Murray would have been up there but for injury concerns.

So tennis is poorer for the retirement of Serena Williams. And what a gap she leaves!