Serena Williams comeback not anywhere in the range of Clijsters or Federer

tennisaddict

Bionic Poster
Why is Serena not having the success after the layoff like Clijsters or Federer ?

Has Serena come back early ?

Or is it the age ?

Or does her game not match up well with the new crop of players - Svitolina, Osaka, Ostapenko ?

What can she learn from their comeback ?
 

Fedeonic

Hall of Fame
Why is Serena not having the success after the layoff like Clijsters or Federer ?

Has Serena come back early ?

Or is it the age ?

Or does her game not match up well with the new crop of players - Svitolina, Osaka, Ostapenko ?

What can she learn from their comeback ?
That Clijsters and Federer are the exception, not the rule. And if you see how she was playing in 2015-2016, she was almost on her last legs.
 
T

Tiki-Taka

Guest
After seeing how much she won in her 30s I would have been surprised if she still kept going at the same pace after giving birth.
 

tennisaddict

Bionic Poster
She lost to Venus and now is down against Osaka, both solid players. Give her a chance.

She also had complications with the birth that make her case unique.

Venus did not even have a single match win this year before IW ?

Serena has faced dime a dozen players on a hot streak like Osaka in the past
 

a10best

Hall of Fame
Neither of them had a baby. I say she maybe gets Wimbledon, not the FO.
She'll still beat the Haleps, Pliskova types, but maybe not the hard-hitting confident Muguruza, Osaka and possibly even Kasatkina.
 

tennisaddict

Bionic Poster
LOL - So you are combining the two, giving birth and coming back at 36

Well, Clijsters gave birth, but did not come back at 36
Federer came back at 36, but did not give birth

Fed was 36 + knee surgery , which is very comparable

The feminists will say giving birth is an entirely different story, hence the Clijsters reference
 

ollinger

G.O.A.T.
Clijsters gave birth and Fed came back at 36

So the comparison is justified

Not particularly. Serena has played two tournments. In her first two tournaments back, Clijsters lost in the quarters and then lost in the third round. Not earth shattering results, and being 10 years younger than Serena currently is makes a huge difference. The comparison is petty, peevish and demeaning to you; history is better assessed after a bit of time has passed.
 

Pheasant

Legend
Serena's peak game is so far above everybody else's, that she could pull off a comeback. However, at her age, she will need to get lean. She hasn't been lean in many years. Her talent carried her through before. But I think she's too old and heavy right now to pull off winning majors. I.e, if she gets to her pre-2010 weight, then I think that she could dominate again, despite being 36 1/2 years old.
 
D

Deleted member 756486

Guest
Fed was 36 + knee surgery , which is very comparable

The feminists will say giving birth is an entirely different story, hence the Clijsters reference
I’m not a feminist but any sane person would say that Serena has much greater odds to overcome than Clijsters did.
Fedr is debatable because he was coming back from a pretty bad knee injury and had surgery.
 

tennisaddict

Bionic Poster
Not particularly. Serena has played two tournments. In her first two tournaments back, Clijsters lost in the quarters and then lost in the third round. Not earth shattering results, and being 10 years younger than Serena currently is makes a huge difference. The comparison is petty, peevish and demeaning to you; history is better assessed after a bit of time has passed.

While not official , Serena got bludgeoned at Abu Dhabi and NY Tiebreak Tens

I was expecting Serena to take her No 1 spot given the turmoil in WTA with 6+ players getting to No 1 in 2017 and all 8 YEC players in contention for that spot. Looks like the wait is going to be longer
 

r2473

G.O.A.T.
Why are people assuming Fed didn't give birth during his break

164960.jpg
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
The stay for knee surgery is much longer in the hospital

Serena would have to deal with her hormones completely out of balance, pro-lactin levels will be through the roof. Endocrinology plays a massive part here, all of her pelvic floor muscles will have been weakened. I have trained post-natal women, giving birth as amazing as it is, is a complete shock and highly stressful to the body. The woman's entire internal environment is thrown off, her levels of progesterone, estrogen cycle will be messed up, because her gonadotrophins would be getting over the all pregnancy. It is not the same world....
 

AM75

Hall of Fame
Wow the match against Osaka was :eek::eek::eek: She tanked it big time. Why play if you're not in the mood to play?
 

fed1

Professional
There was speculation that she may now think about taking a wildcard into Charleston, I’m thinking that would be a massive mistake. She didn’t have the ability/endurance to stay in long rallies with Osaka on a hard court. She runs the risk of getting totally demoralized on the clay.
 

ollinger

G.O.A.T.
The stay for knee surgery is much longer in the hospita

Really? When I had my torn meniscus (same injury Fed had) repaired, I went home, as most people do, the same day. Child birth is usually two days in the hospital for normal delivery, four or five for Caesarean.
 
D

Deleted member 742196

Guest
Clijsters gave birth and Fed came back at 36

So the comparison is justified

LOL - So you are combining the two, giving birth and coming back at 36

Well, Clijsters gave birth, but did not come back at 36
Federer came back at 36, but did not give birth

Good catch.

@tennisaddict should also clarify the preferred name for his/her Frankensteinian creation.

Clijsterer or,
Fedjsters

?
 

thrust

Legend
Why is Serena not having the success after the layoff like Clijsters or Federer ?

Has Serena come back early ?

Or is it the age ?

Or does her game not match up well with the new crop of players - Svitolina, Osaka, Ostapenko ?

What can she learn from their comeback ?
Serena is 8-10 years older than Kim was when she had her first child. Also, according to Davenport on Tennis Channel today, Serena had a C section delivery that takes longer to heal. Margret Court won three slams in 73 after her comeback at 31, but won no slams after that. After her second child, she had very little success. Serena isn't done yet.
 

AnOctorokForDinner

Talk Tennis Guru
Too old for this shiet.

However much her fanatics would have you believe that, Williams is not a superhero. It's tough to recover from a difficult birth at that age. It's good to see her try anyway - shows that she can take a string of bad losses in stride rather than ragequit, even knowing more will come.

With the body too worn out, I don't think Williams should be a threat for dominance unless the tour plummets (continues to plummet) ridiculously.
 

Tennisanity

Legend
Imagine if she wins a slam, people will be lifting her to superhuman status. How about some consistency and say she's just not that good now that she's lost a couple.
 

George Turner

Hall of Fame
Comparisons to other returnees this year in their first two tournaments;

Raonic; Lost first two matches. Once to a teenage rookie, one to a journeyman.
Wawrinka; Got Whooped by Tennys, winning only 7 games in 3 sets. Then lost to a journeyman.
Nishikori; Lost his first match in a challenger. Then won another challenger but has no notable wins on the ATP this year.
Nadal; Got injured again
Djokovic; Lost to "baby Djokovic" and to a journeyman. Real question marks over his fitness and attitude.
Tomic; Lost in qualifying for the Australian open then to the world number 253 in a challenger. Sorry couldn't resist throwing him in :D

I wouldn't say Serenas comeback so far has been out the norm, considering all the complications with her pregnancy.

Fedster comeback was the exception not the norm, and their situation was not as serious. The best comparison to Serena i can think of is James Blake, in terms of the seriousness of the condition that kept him out. He spent months on the challenger circuit to recover his game.
 

scotus

G.O.A.T.
It is not bad for Serena to help out WTA tournament in the US by signing up to play them.

Tournaments sell more tickets, and Serena collects big fat appearance fees. If she loses in the first round, she gets to go shopping or have more time with her baby. Tournaments have already sold most tickets.

It's a win-win.
 

prairiegirl

Hall of Fame
Time for her to retire. It's very difficult to come back in your late thirties after giving birth. She is facing a host of issues as described by other posters. Was never a fan of hers, but I respect her incredible achievements. But, it's time to let go, and it's clear she doesn't know it and is trying to hang on.
 

fed1

Professional
I admit I’m not a fan and I thought I was going to enjoy watching Osaka hammer her today but I actually felt a bit sorry for her. It was 3 and 2 but it wasn’t even that close. I’ll draw the analogy of the boxer that just hangs on a bit to long and looks like a shell of themselves.
 

octobrina10

Talk Tennis Guru
Fed was 36 + knee surgery , which is very comparable

The feminists will say giving birth is an entirely different story, hence the Clijsters reference

Hmm. Fed had knee injury in January 2016 and after that he lost to Tsonga in Monter Carlo, Dominic Thiem in Rome & Stuttgart, A.Zverev in Halle and Raonic in Wimbledon.

Then he took a 6-month sabbatical from the Tour.
 

TennisLBC

Professional
Serena lost to a very good player that is on fire. A player with a very similar style. Osaka is the Heir Apparent. People are already whining about her; so she must be on the right track.

Plus, it not like Serena lost to Sharapova.
 
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