Hingis and Henin are not ahead of Serena, I didn't want to differentiate WITHIN a league.
But Serena is not league 1 either.
She had only 13 great months (June 2002 - July 2003) in which she won 5 of her 7 slams. She has far less slams than Graf, King et al.
Comparable to Monica Seles. A short great time and then getting over-weight, injured, out-of-form. Definitely not league 1!
Condi
every active wta player has "far less slams" than graf, king, etc! it's a different era.
as good as sharapova & henin are, and the williams sisters were, none of them will ever approach the number of grand slams as any of your league 1 players of the past.
first, there's much more parity among today's female players namely because of the 'internationalization' of the game. with the opening up of the soviet union alone, we are seeing a proliferation of talent that wasn't on the map in evert's days. that's why you are seeing sharapova, petrova, and all the other ova's storming the top 10! and as china & india, with their billion plus populations, continue to blossom economically, so that tennis is accessible to the masses, we'll see even more international players.
secondly, we won't see that number of grand slams again from women players because of today's injury factor. during evert's era, there were a lot more clay and grass tournaments, which are much easier on the knees and body; hence, navratilova, evert, etc. were essentially injury-free throughout their very long careers. contrast that with today when most tier 1 events are played on hard court. even the wta's most fittest players - henin, clistjers, mauresmo, sharapova, etc - all have been out with injury numerous times already and probably will be many more times over their career.
in conclusion, comparing your league 1 tennis players to today's tennis players is comparing apples to oranges. it's like comparing byron nelson's dominance in the golf (playing against a limited field of rich white american and european players) versus tiger woods' dominance against an international field of players from all over the world, like vijay singh (indian descent), ernie els (south africa), etc. the tiger slam, like the serena slam, is way more credible imo because they were acheived against a truer talent pool of competitors from all over the world!
