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Former World No.1 Simona Halep says Serena Williams is "the greatest of all time" and added that "no one is going to play the level that she played" Two-time Grand Slam champion Halep faced Williams on 12 occasions and the American won 10 of those 12 meetings.
But Halep beat Williams in her biggest meeting, defeating the American 6-2 6-2 in the 2019 Wimbledon final. "It was an honour, actually, to play so many matches against her and share the dressing room with her. She has done incredible things in tennis and she will always be the best.
No one is going to play the level that she played," Halep said of Williams, according to Max Gao. During her prime, Williams was one of the most dominant players in tennis history. For many years, Williams was a dominant force on Tour and some players literally feared being destroyed before taking to the court to face the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
"The power, the confidence, the way of playing to stay super aggressive, to stay close to the baseline and to make so many winners. The serve, which was sometimes untouchable. Also the desire, the passion to win every ball," Halep explained.
In 2013, Halep reached the Rome semi-final as a qualifier. Then, Halep's great Rome ended after a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Williams. Reflecting on that match, Halep said Williams "killed" her on the court. "I remember 2013 when I played her in the semis in Rome.
She killed me. But that year she didn't lose any matches on clay."
Serena is a 23-time Grand Slam champion
Academy Award winning producer Van Lathan and noted media personality Rachel Lindsay reflected on Serena Williams.
"She was never supposed to be dominating her sport. She wasn't. Tiger, you could almost make that argument for as well," Rachel Lindsay said. "But for Michael Jordan, black men being great at basketball. Tom Brady, a white man being a great quarterback.
I'm just saying - you know what I'm saying. I'm not discrediting what they have done, what they have accomplished but Serena Williams was never supposed to dominate the sport of tennis. Everything was against her. (If) she did one wrong thing, and she was hyper-criticized for anything she did - if she had an attitude, if she wore her hair in a certain way, if she wore her outfit in a certain way, her body structure, everything that she did was criticized," Lindsay said.