Andrea Petkovic: Serena Williams or Steffi Graf? 'I would throw a coin'
After her opening win in Roland Garros on Monday, World No. 69 Andrea Petkovic was asked to determine who is the best female player of all times, “I really don't think I'm in the position to judge that. I do think Serena [Williams] and Steffi [Graf] are two of the greatest. I wouldn't want to -- I would throw a coin. If you would really nail me on it, I would throw a coin and let the coin decide, but I wouldn't want to decide that.
Obviously, Serena has one slam more than Steffi. Is it that one slam that makes a difference? I don't know. I do think Serena had a tougher upbringing where she comes from and what she had to endure as an African-American person in our sport. But then again, Steffi had tough surroundings as well with her dad. So you just can't compare the two. But they're definitely both up there.
Happy Birthday, Steffi [smiling].”
On another topic, the German was asked to share her thoughts on whether it is better to start playing on clay courts and then get introduced to hard and grass, or vice versa, “That's interesting. I haven't really thought about this because I grew up naturally on clay. I think most of us Europeans did. And just for me, I like clay because it makes the game a little slower and it gives you the opportunity to really use your brains and use tactical choices.
And just on grass and on hards, everyone has gotten so powerful and tennis has gotten so quick, sometimes it's more a survival than really what I consider playing tennis, which is like a chess game in my eyes. So I like that on clay you still have the opportunity to run down balls and to use certain tactical aspects to the game.
But generally, I have also had really good results on hard court. Grass, not so much. So I think I like that it's so challenging in tennis that you have the different surfaces and the different tournaments in countries and surroundings, and I think that's what makes our sport one of the most challenging.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Mk99EY
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