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Serena Williams
How do you weigh a GOAT?
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Serena Williams
In other words, what matrix do you use to determine who is the Greatest Of All Time? The question has never been more pertinent in tennis than this week,
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Serena Williams
with Serena Williams' career coming to an end at the US Open at the age of 40.
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Serena Williams
She won her first round match and will hopefully advance further, but her final hour of power on the court of dreams is not far away.
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Serena Williams
At first glance, it appeared to me that she was the GOAT.
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Serena Williams
I assumed, as you undoubtedly did, that the key metric was simply how many majors you had won, weighted against how strong the competition was at the time.
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Serena Williams
Yes, Serena Williams will almost certainly finish with one fewer grand slam than Margaret Court,
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Serena Williams
but few would argue in favour of Mrs Court given that half of the Australian's career was spent in the less intense and competitive amateur era.
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Serena Williams
(And, if we can indulge in a little "what if," who can deny that Williams' power game, her sheer athleticism, would blow Court off the same scale?)