ROGER FEDERER AND SERENA WILLIAMS

Both men serving 122 mph or so, we are told – about Serena Williams pace.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/sep/09/us-open-finals-2013-nadal-djokovic-live

Let me start this piece with an apology. I am not comparing Serena with Federer or Nadal. I was amused by the comment of the Manchester Guardian’s running commentary of the match between Nadal and Djokovic in the US tennis final 2013 I watched keeping awake whole night it being 3/28 AM of 10 September in India when I noticed this comment. This clarification is necessary as the numpties among tennis fans may misunderstand it otherwise.

The fastest service of different male players in US tennis 2013 of the top players as reported are: Djokovic 127 mph Nadal125mph Federer 127 mph while Isner’s is 147 mph. But Serena’s has been 126 mph which equals or is more than that of many male players. And remember that she is 32 years old and is entering her 33rd year in September.

Those interested in the parallel careers of both Federer and Serena may have noticed their birth details: Federer (born on 8 August 1981) and Serena ( 28 September 1981) have a difference of only one month and twenty days, the senior in age being Federer. Both are thirty two years old. Federer has entered his thirty third year and at the end of September this year Serena too will enter that year. Both have seventeen grand slams titles each. Serena in a supreme form playing her best tennis even at this age and winning with confidence and gusto.She is eclipsing Federer who, now fading fast, has been hitting his forehand returns many times beyond the baseline, his once graceful backhand passing shots outside the sidelines, hitting flower pots. Serena still serves aces while Federer serves with less speed, serves fewer aces. There is every chance of Serena equalling the record of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert which is only more from her seventeen. Yet, Steffi Graff is perched on the great record of 22 major singles titles and above her Margaret Court with 24.

All that is elusive for Federer who may not be able to increase his tally of 17 grand slams. But Federer still holds the record of most grand slams among male tennis players. Rod Laver with 200 career titles, a world record, had a break from amateur tennis between 1962 and 1967 but had 11 grand slam titles and 8 pro slams which is more than Federer’s. If this break had not occurred Laver would have created a record unreachable by male tennis players in grand slams or at any rate that would have been very difficult one to equal. Then there is that great difference between that era of wooden racket of Laver with the steel one of Federer and Nadal etc. which bludgeons the opponent in series of errors with the sheer speed of some shots. How Ramanath Krishnan and Manuel Santana the supreme artists of this great game would have fared in this era of steel rackets is a puzzling guess only for us.

Against this background see how long can Serena play her power tennis with her serves equalling and even surpassing the speed of many contemporary power tennis of male players. She is passing through Rahu mahadasha placed in the fourth house with Mars in Karka where the placement of Rahu has been praised by Maharshi Parashara. Mars is exalted in the navamsha. Rahu placed in the second house in the navamsha is in the eleventh house in the dashamansha and it is in this dasha that she can achieve her landmark achievements and will also fade out.

Periods of decline
In all careers but mostly in sports where the active life at the top is in highest competetive sports very brief, the Vimshottari mahadasha with its antardashas gives a clear indication of the time of fade out in three stages:

1) Nearing the end of declining years as happened in the case of Federer as soon as his Mercury mahadasha started from January 2008. It was also a significant dasha chiddra for him.

2) Then the antardashas Ketu was unhelpful but part of Venus proved good. Mercury Venus Jupiter confirmed his decline as irreversible.

3) Now Mercury Venus Mercury is the period of his eclipse which will become visible in the antardasha of Sun. The Federer era has ended. In the antardasha of Sun it will be part of past history.

But even what he achieved in the mahadasha of Mercury was not very convincing as he won all these matches without facing Nadal who has a better record against him. Luck was still favouring Federer and he won some important matches without facing Nadal as I had already written earlier.

AND 2008 when I wrote about his decline - In 2009 French, Wimbledon TWO without facing Nadal - In 2010 Australian ONE without facing Nadal  In 2011 NONE - In 2012 Wimbledon ONE without facing Nadal Won only FOUR grand slams in four years. ( FEDERER FLOPS AGAIN: AND THE ENIGMA, KN RAO, 6 September 2012, 7:35 PM)

Serena Williams case
Serena Williams case is different as there is no dasha chiddra in her case as the present Rahu mahadasha will end very late in 2022 and her career will be over in one of its antardashas after she begins to fade out in one of its antardashas.

See the antardashas
1) In the antardasha of Mercury, the third and the sixth lord of the birth horoscope and placed in the sixth house with the sixth lord in the dashamansha, she has all the fight and zeal to win in tact in her.

2) The next antardasha of Ketu, in the tenth house of the birth horoscope and coming from March 2015 her decline will be visible as though well placed in the tenth house in the birth horoscope, it is in the fifth house of the dashamansha, tenth from the tenth house.

3) It is in Rahu Venus dasha that her fade out will become a reality of her career. She will be nearing her thirty fifth year and in Chara dasha it will be the dasha of Kanya with her Gnathikaraka in it though also with Amatyakaraka.

Like Federer and India’s Sachin Tendulkar she may not announce her retiremend from international tennis but she will find herself getting defeated from players ranked much below her, as has happened to her before her also many times. If injuried and ailments had not kept Williams sisters out of tennis competetions in some spells one of them might have been rivalling Steffi Graff in the race to 22 gramd slams.

What then can we expect Serena to achieve in the two active playing years left to her to achieve something more than what she already has ? She will be equalling and surpassing the record of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert which is only more from her seventeen but will not be anywhere near Steffi Graff’s 22 leave alone 24 of Margaret Court.

But she will have her place reserved among tennis immortals of the world in tennis history and will be remembered along her elder sister Venus of bringing into women’s tennis so much of athleticism and power into women’s tennis and a male’s power and sometimes even exceeding it as she and her sister Venus alone could do. There has also been a feeling that if her elder sister Venus had not been suffering from some undisclosed medical problems Serena would have been eclipsed her many times in many tournaments.

After the match, Martina Navratilova said that Williams is in the top 5 of all the women's tennis players in all of history, which she said that "it's not just about how many Slams you win or how many tournaments you win—it's just your game overall. And she's definitely got all the goods."

Let us also remember what wikipedia says about her “”Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Williams holds the most Major eighth on the all-time list: 17 in singles, 13 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously ('02–'03) and only the fifth woman ever to do so. Her total of 17 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list, and fourth in the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each).

( 11 September 2013 at 1/27 am)