Chansky’s Notebook: She Is The Greatest!

This is today’s Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook as heard on 97.9 WCHL. You can listen to previous Sports Notebooks here.

Is Serena Williams the best and most accomplished athlete on the planet?

How about you? Serena Williams never ceases to amaze me. At 33, she has already won two legs of the tennis grand slam this year and looks quicker and stronger than ever heading into Wimbledon, where if she wins will be the first woman to be 3-0 in the majors since 1988 when Steffi Graf did it.

That’s because Serena has won more grand slams, 20, than the entire Wimbledon women’s field, minus anyone named Venus, her sister. If you care, the leggy Maria Sharapova has five. By the way, Serena is 20-4 in her last 24 grand slams and 12-1 in her last 13. Not getting older, getting better.

It sounds ridiculous, but Serena can win her sixth Wimbledon, which is one more than Venus, and one away from Graf’s seven. Martina Navratilova’s nine? Serena will be only 36 when she matches that number. Don’t bet against it, her overall record in 82 matches at the All England Club is 72-10, and the 10 losses are to nine different foes, losing twice to Venus. That’s sisterly love.

Of course, there was the Serena Slam a few years ago, when she held all four championships at the same time but overlapping two years. Now, she is going for all four trophies and silver plates in 2015 by winning Wimbledon and on her home hard court at the U.S. Open. . . .to become only the third woman to win all four in the same calendar years after Graf in ’88 and Margaret Court in 1970. What are odds? Vegas has her at even money.

I say all this because, pound for pound and muscle for muscle, Serena Williams is the greatest athlete in the world. Better than LeBron who is only 2-4 in NBA Finals. Better than Rhonda Rousey, Serena would slam her to death. Even better than Jordan Spieth, who’s matching her major for major and will go for his third at St. Andrews in the British Open. Should they both win them all this year, then it goes to tie-breakers in any other sports besides tennis and golf.

Basketball? Serena in a slam dunk. Wrestling? Not even close. Arm-wrestling? Over in seconds. Tackle football? Poor Jordan Spieth.

Watch Serena Williams this week and tell me you have ever seen a better physical specimen. And, when she is running her monster body from sideline to sideline, from baseline to net, remember she is 33 going on another grand slam.