By Sharanya Gopinathan
GQ Magazine has been plugging their cover story on Twitter, and they said it was an interview with the greatest tennis player of all time.
We caught up with the greatest tennis player of all time https://t.co/I5oSpnmxeX pic.twitter.com/Qwj4wk1Kkh
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 21, 2017
Except if you look carefully at the picture, you’ll notice that this isn’t a picture of Serena Williams at all, but of Roger Federer. What a weird mistake to make!
Twitter users were quick to point out what has to have been a mistake on GQ’s part.
“This looks nothing like Serena Williams.”https://t.co/SISyTyyqTy
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) March 21, 2017
@GQMagazine Oh please GQ.. we know it’s Serena Williams #fakenews#alternativefacts
— 46664#SW23 (@LTrinidette) March 21, 2017
Only the stupidest uninformed would compare Serena’s 23 slams to Roger’s 18 #Federer #GQ https://t.co/W5SQkqjbUg
— Calvin Swine (@CalvinSwine905) March 23, 2017
I was joking before. It obviously wasn’t a mistake on the part of GQ, it was sexism that made GQ forget that Serena Williams has won more Grand Slam singles titles than any other athlete in the world. Former tennis number one, Andy Roddick has said that Serena Williams is one of the greatest athletes of all time across all sports, and Williams herself has said that she prefers to be called one of the greatest athletes in the world, not, as so many media houses persist in calling her, one of the greatest female athletes.
This is hardly the first time something like this has happened. She faces this kind of stupid sexism so often you wonder why she puts up with any of us. In a 2016 interview with Andy Murray, interviewer John Inverdale conveniently forget about women, and informed Murray that he was the first person to ever two Olympic tennis gold medals. Murray immediately corrected him by reminding him that Venus and Serena Williams had both won about four Olympic gold medals each. In 2015, Williams once got super fed-up and properly told off a journalist who asked her why she wasn’t smiling at 11.30 pm during a post-match press conference.
This article erroneously referred to Andy Murray in the last paragraph as Andy Roddick. This has been corrected.
March 23, 2017 at 4:31 pm
Margaret Court won 24 so the above article is in wrror saying no one has won more than Serena’s 23. Anyway, Roger Federer IS a better tennis player than Serena.
March 23, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Esther Vergeer and Margaret Court are the greatest women’s tennis players, not Serena Williams. Serena benefited from a weak era. Read “Margaret Court the greatest: Evonne Goolagong Cawley”
There is no equivalence between the Grand Slam singles titles in women’s tennis (played over best-of-three sets and against relatively weak players) and in men’s tennis (played over best-of-five sets and against superior players).
The majority of the paying spectators are willing to pay more for men’s tennis because it is higher quality than women’s tennis. That is why tickets for the women’s final is much cheaper than for the men’s final — otherwise few people would watch the women’s final. At the Miami Open, the men’s singles final tickets cost $85, $290 and $550 while the same tickets for the women’s singles final costs $54, $150, $275. $275.
The Women’s Tennis Association prohibits male players from competing on the WTA Tour (see the WTA rulebook)! Such blatant gender discrimination invalidates any comparison of men’s tennis with women’s tennis.
What if Serena Williams was not terrified of playing the men under the same fair standard rules? Then the top 1,000 men would beat Serena. If they played to their full potential, Roger Federer and other top 10 male players would probably trash Serena 0-6, 0-6 in less than 45 minutes.
In 2012, Rafael Nadal’s coach Toni Nadal diplomatically concluded that Serena’s shots would not hurt a top male player, and she lacks the fitness and mobility to compete against the men. Former ATP No. 3 David Ferrer and former WTA No. 51 Anabel Medina Garrigues both concurred. Read “Serena würde gegen jeden Top-300-Spieler verlieren”
In 2012, the Tennis Channel surveyed experts who ranked Federer the greatest tennis player of all time, male and female, on its Greatest 100 list. Just two months ago, Tennis Channel’s historian/expert Steve Flink reiterated: “I believe Federer has reaffirmed that he must be regarded as the greatest player ever to lift a tennis racket.”
Federer won the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award a record four times ahead of awardees such as Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt and Michael Schumacher. Serena won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award three times despite a weaker list of awardees.
March 23, 2017 at 7:40 pm
The White Knight clearly views himself as the saviour of all womankind.
Yes, it’s subjective – who’s the greatest tennis player of all time. But people referring to number of wins and gold medals are trying to make it objective. Plus the point of the article is to bring to notice the fact that women are often overlooked – they are the greatest ‘female’ in a field, whereas men are the greatest ‘person’ in a field.
March 25, 2017 at 9:11 am
It’s completely ridiculous to claim Serena Williams is a greater tennis player than Roger Federer. Women’s tennis and men’s tennis is not the same sport.
Serena wins based on pure strength and power. The field is too weak to match the firepower she has. Give her a tricky opponent (see Vincy) and Serena will quickly be exposed. John McEnroe of today would win against her by exploiting her footwork.
April 18, 2017 at 1:07 pm
Feminists, female or male need to stop being ridiculous. Federer is the greatest tennis player ever. If Serena only played women tournaments which is much less competitive I don’t care if she won 100 slams she’s not THE GREATEST but the greatest female tennis player. That monicker should belong to the ABSOLUTE Greatest, Roger Federer.