Serena is the best player of this generation-Evert
For Evert, it counts for less if Serena at 40 is now losing to the players she used to beat.
Tennis great Chris Evert says Serena Williams is "no longer the Serena of the time" but still hopes interest in the American's matches spills over at the US Open. Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, will retire from professional tennis at the US Open.
Evert acknowledged that Williams is "the best player of this generation" and believes that "every tennis fan" will want a ticket to the American's matches.
"She has been the best player of this generation," Evert told Women's Wait Daily.
"She's going to be crazy. All the fans will want a ticket to see Serena, thinking it's her last match. She's not the Serena of the time, she's 40 years old and starting to lose to the players she used to beat.
I don't know how long she's going to last in the tournament, so it's going to be a crazy first week where people are trying to get the last glimpse of her." Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, turned professional in 1972 and retired in 1982.
Asked to compare the circumstances of her and Williams' upcoming retirement, Evert noted that each player has her reasons for ending her career. "Each one retires for a different reason. Sometimes your body gives up, sometimes you are mentally exhausted.
I withdrew because I was mentally exhausted. When people talk about Serena and Roger [Federer] and ask: 'When are they going to retire? Unless you've been through that, you have no idea."
In an article for We Are Tennis, Craig Gabriel spoke highly of Serena Williams and said that she should be held at the same level as some of the best athletes in the world across all sports.
“She never wanted to be considered the greatest female athletes in the world, she wanted to be considered one of the greatest athletes. Period,” he said, adding, “She should probably be considered alongside the likes of Tom Brady, Usain Bolt, Michael Jordan, etc because not only did she reach the summit, she and her family did it without favours being handed out”.
Gabriel said that while it is not the conventional way for a sportsperson to announce his/her retirement, Williams has always been used to "doing things her way." “Her announcement in Vogue magazine was a different way of doing things but then being different and doing things her way has made Serena Williams stand out from the crowd.
Her announcement declaring her career match point had arrived was inevitable, but even Serena could not have envisaged going out of tennis the way things developed the last few weeks,” he said.
