She has a serve that once topped 128mph, has won 23 grand slam singles titles and is regarded by many to be the best female athlete of all time, but 12% of British men would still fancy their chances of taking a point off Serena Williams. “Good luck with that,” tweeted Judy Murray. The sports broadcaster Catherine Whitaker tweeted: “If you’re one of the 12% you should be required to declare it on online dating profiles. Like a CRB check but for delusional morons.”
According to a YouGov poll, one in eight men – in the general population, that is, not necessarily people who enjoy playing tennis – said they thought they could win a point against Williams (one in 33 women thought the same). Could they? It depends who you are asking, says David Sammel, the head coach at Team Bath Tennis. “If you get a good club player, I’m sure they’d take a point off her. If you get a beginner, the only way they’ll take a point is if she serves a double fault. If you’ve never played tennis, then absolutely not.”
You would have to be a good county player as a minimum, thinks Chris Bowers, a sports journalist who has written biographies of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. “But how many people would count themselves as good-level county players?” It’s certainly not one in eight, he points out. “Therefore, there has to be a degree of delusion among the people answering this survey. Unless you’re hoping through the law of averages for Serena to serve a double fault then I think it’s seriously delusional.”
The misconception, he says, “is just how good top-level professionals are. They are so, so far ahead of even quality club and county players. While they may play the same game, the difference in speed, weight of shot, reaction time, is so much greater.” And, he points out, had the pollsters chosen anyone but Williams, who is constantly held to different standards, the results may have been different. “The implication in there is there is a whole lot of loaded prejudiced views against her. I’m sceptical about the survey, I just wonder whether someone is trying to make mischief.”
