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Sports - Reuters
Serena Is the Tiger of Tennis, Says Davenport
Wed Jan 29, 7:25 AM ET
By Alastair Himmer
TOKYO (Reuters) - Serena Williams (news - web sites) has become the Tiger Woods of tennis after achieving the game's "mission impossible," according to fellow American Lindsay Davenport (news).
Williams deserves to be considered one of the all-time greats of the game after joining an exclusive grand slam club by winning the Australian Open (news - web sites) during the weekend, Davenport said.
"People were talking about this with Tiger Woods in golf. She is remarkable, the way she has handled everything," the former world No. 1 told Reuters on Wednesday.
Serena beat big sister Venus, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, in the Melbourne final to become only the fifth woman to hold all four grand slam titles at once. The 21-year-old christened it the "Serena Slam."
Davenport, however, called it "mission impossible," arguing that it was harder to achieve now than when Steffi Graf (news) won all four major titles in 1988.
"We say this and maybe we sound a bit silly, but there is a lot more competition now than when I started 10 years ago," said Davenport, in Tokyo to play at the Pan Pacific Open.
"Not just the tennis but mentally there was so much pressure on Serena. She exudes more class now and she has become a much different person than she was three or four years ago."
Davenport declined to make comparisons between Serena and the players who won four successive grand slams before her.
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