She has been named many things over the years, including an eleven-time Grand Slam champion, but how would you describe Serena Williams in just one word?
For this week’s Open Forum Friday discussion, we want you to take a shot at describing Serena. What first comes to mind when you think of her?
The rules are simple—you can only use one word. Afterward, if you choose, you can give us a paragraph or two explaining why you picked that word.
Just as a reminder, please keep the conversation civil. OTB’s comment policy is non-negotiable, so anything personally degrading or unduly harsh will be deleted.
Have fun, everyone, and have a great weekend!
Special thanks to @DataMaverick for suggesting Serena!
FIGHTER!!!!!!!!!
she fights so hard for every point out there so the word FIGHTER is perfect for her.
one word to describe serena (champion)
warrior
winner
Serena Williams = POWERFUL
One word for Serena Williams? Unparalleled
Fierce
ARROGANT
Serena Williams: fierce
fearless
Amazing!!!!
although I love the word “unparralled”. I truly believe the tennis world will never see another player like Serena Williams.
Upset:
As Samantha Stosur took Serena down today in the quarterfinal (6-2, 3-6, 6-2) at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, Ms. Williams had to be feeling a bit miffed. (But Venus rolled over Sharapova: 6-2, 6-2).
Interestingly, the last time I participated in one of these one word descriptions I used the same word to describe Jankovic who also lost on the same day the article appeared.
Must object to one word used to describe Serena.
From Webster’s New World Dictionary (Third College Edition):
arrogant: adj.- full of or due to unwarranted (unjustified) pride or self-importance.
The critical word in the definition is unwarranted. As in: Since she had won no Grand Slams, the tennis player’s boasting was arrogant (or unwarranted).
Arrogant? Serena? People often misuse words, applying them inappropriately. An arrogant person is a person who brags without reason, with nothing to back up his or her pride. But as all knowledgeable tennis fans know, there is absolutely nothing “arrogant” about Serena’s boasting: she has her remarkable career to back up every word she says.
Pressure player, fighter
Here are some alternative definitions of “arrogant” that do not require the boasting to be unwarranted:
* making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud [Dictionary.com]
* having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance [The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language]
* marked by or arising from a feeling or assumption of one’s superiority toward others [The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language]
But, of course, no “alternative” definitions of the word “arrogant” apply to Serena.
* Serena does not “claim” or “pretend” or “assume” her superiority: her record proves that she is superior. And, rightly, she is most proud of her achievements; only those who resent her refusal to be humble and meek about her record find her insolent.
* Serena’s strong sense of self-identity has been a key component in helping to forge her spectacular record. Hence, she feels most worthy and most important because she has earned the right to be; and again, this reality ( the cold, hard, undeniable truth of her record) sticks rather painfully in the disapproving consciousness of the ant-Serena crowd.
* “Feeling” or “assuming” have nothing to do with Serena’s superiority to the current roster of players on the WTA tour: there simply isn’t anyone on the tour who can match her record. And the record is the only fact that matters. The imprecision and misuse of words continues, but no matter. Serena’s record still stands.
Wilson no matter how you want to sugar coat Serena is arrogant. After Sam beat her she said she got lucky if that’s not the definition of arrogant I don’t know what is.
Have to say Andrew’s last post is right on the money all the definitions he has used apply to Serena and they all mean the same thing. ARROGANT they should put Serena’s photo in the dictionary along side it.
Even though no one can match Serena’s record it doesn’t give her the right to belittle her opponents wins when they beat her.
Would it kill her just for once to say she was beaten by a better play and put no but on the end of it like her she got lucky statement after the Sam match.
Serena’s strong sense of self identity is just Serena being arrogant. You can have a strong sense of self without being arrogant.
At this point I think even if Serena thought otherwise, she should not say she was beaten by a better player when she loses, because it seems it sticks in the craw of the spectators’ who think she is arrogant than the players on tour. Many players respect her, thinks she is nice off court. Serena’s press conference before and after playing Stosur was highly complimentary, but I guess that does not matter, people who do not like her will simply not like her no matter what she says or what she does. They can say she is arrogant, but at this point why belabor the point and bring it up EVERY SINGLE TIME SHE LOSES A MATCH?
chidi, you beat me to it but here goes anyway.
Vicki:
“Sugar coat”?! Never! Only the unvarnished truth has been offered in defense of Serena (not that she needs it).
And naturally, in order to advance your misguided/misinformed notion of what “arrogant” means, you submit only a portion of the statement Serena made after her match. The Associated Press reported on numerous websites (ESPN, TENNIS.com et al) that Serena also said: “She (Stosur) played well and didn’t do anything bad.” Oh, wonder how that part of the statement slipped past your well-considered analysis?
To say that Serena “belittled” Samantha Stosur is an outright lie, part and parcel of the intellectual dishonesty of the anti-Serena crowd (and everyone will notice that Stosur never made any mention of being “belittled”; sheer fabrication by a rabid anti-Serena fan).
Get this: Serena Williams is under no obligation to “sugar coat” her superiority; she knows who she is and she knows what she’s done in the world of women’s tennis and she’s very, very very proud of it. And should be. If you can’t handle the truth of her superiority, if you can’t handle her refusal to cede any of her superiority to the occasional defeat at the hands of a lesser player then that’s just tough (no sugar there)!
No matter how you try to spin it, the word “arrogant” will never describe Serena. Those who think that the word “arrogant” is “right on the money” when speaking of Serena are dealing in counterfeit currency. Her record is superior to all current players. Fact. She is a very proud tennis champion. Another fact. That’s not “sugar” that the anti-Serena crowd is tasting as they swallow these facts; that’s their own bile rising up as they spit out their next round of lies and dishonesty.
Fascinating discussion, all! I guess this shows that we probably can’t describe Serena using just one word! :)
Interesting take on Serena’s alleged arrogancy. Wilson & Andrew, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think what you are trying to point out is that arrogance means that someone is unjustifiably prideful. Or to put it in plain English, full of hot air for no reason.
I agree – Serena Williams DOES NOT fit this description. Love her or hate her, the facts plainly state to the contrary. With eleven majors, she does have something to crow about, if she chooses.
I think we’ll all agree that Serena can be occasionally quite ungracious. However, I believe it happens far less than the gossip tabloid style media wants you to believe. Serena’s words are generally taken through a sieve and depending on the objective, writers are often able to twist them any way they want.
In the case of Stosur, Serena was speaking honestly about Sam’s game. She does hit a lot of lucky shots, but like others will tell you (and Serena herself paid tribute to Stosur’s talent) luck often results from a lot of practice and skill. Compared to some of Serena’s other statements in the past, I thought she was rather gracious.
To sum it up, no Serena Williams is NOT arrogant, because to be arrogant, you have to be inferior to the claims you are attempting to justify. Serena’s record more than backs her mouth up, although she could probably use a hefty dose of tact added to her repertoire.
Thanks for the input Aaress (and apologies for going outside the “one word” rule).
Guess everyone can put away their dictionaries now….but wait…what’s that word?….”tact”?…something diplomats use isn’t it?…not something a
proud tennis champion would indulge in…you did mention “plain English”; that sounds more like Serena…and… ah, but it’s getting late…time to retire (good night, I think, everybody).
I think in the press conference after the Stosur match, Serena was also being funny. She was making fun of the statements she usually says about her opponents at the press conference and even complimented Stosur and her game. She also said Stosur is a talented player.
Serena tweets back and forth with her fans and she is involve in alot of charity work. Actually off the court she is real down to earth person and quite funny. She also said in a press conference that she will try to take her losses better.
Inspirational.
My point was (with dictionary-definitions to back me up) that one can be arrogant even if one’s claims are fully justified by the truth.
Serena may say that she is the best player in the world, and objectively I agree with the truth of that assertion – she has, after all, won three of the last four Majors. But it is arrogant to blow one’s own trumpet.
Serena may say that a particular loss was due to her own unforced errors rather than crediting her opponent, or say that her opponent hit lots of “lucky shots”. These points may be valid in an objective analysis of the match, but it is arrogant for the loser of such a match to say them.
It’s better to be humble, and leave it to others to praise you or discredit your opponents. For she who humbles herself shall be exalted (e.g. Monica Seles), and she who exalts herself shall be humbled (e.g. Serena said, “Quite frankly, I’m the best player in the world,” and then lost her opening match at Rome the next day).
I am not anti-Serena – not by a long stretch – but I do think she’s arrogant.
Wilson the thing that makes Serena arrogant is what she says after matches. She is a great player there is no doubting that. I
It’s what comes out of her mouth after matches that makes her arrogant using the Sam match as an example as it’s the most resent. Just saying Sam played better than me when has on that day she is way better than saying she hit lucky shots and I was the reason I lost.
You can believe in yourself and be confidant without coming across as arrogant. Lindsay Davenport was a great example of this.
Humble in victory and even more humble in defeat.
As Ronald Reagan once said to Walter Mondale during a debate: “There you go again!”
It is never “arrogant” to speak the truth and this is especially true when you are responsible for accomplishing a great feat or reaching a great goal only to have others attempt to dismiss or diminish your accomplishments with inaccuracies and misinterpretations (of a word in this case). The problem with telling the truth is that there may be (and are) many who do not wish to hear it.
The definition(s) is (are) clear: if you blow your horn without cause you are arrogant, otherwise you are merely celebrating your triumphs (which may be too much to bear for those who are against you).
A consistent ploy of those who are against Serena is to go through her post-match comments, filtering out anything positive she may have to say about an opponent and offering up anything that may be construed as “negative” as “proof” that Serena is “arrogant”. The post- match interview with comments about Stosur is a perfect example of how the dishonest minions of the anti-Serena crowd deal in half- truths. As pointed out in an earlier post, here is the whole truth of what Serena said (as reported by The Associated Press): “She played well and didn’t do anything bad. She went for broke and struck all her balls as hard as she could. She never lets you get into a rhythm.” And again, as pointed out previously, Samantha Stosur made absolutely no comment that can even remotely be considered critical or disapproving of anything Serena said about her (but true to form, the anti-Serena mob is apoplectic with indignation).
When Serena retires and some guests to her home, perhaps unaware of her tremendous professional triumphs, ask how she came by all those glittering trophies on her mantlepiece, she will no doubt regale them, in great detail, with the exciting particulars of her indisputable superiority. When you have achieved greatness you have every reason to shout to the heavens. To be humble in the face of your own greatness is to exercise an unbecoming and exceedingly false modesty: when you’ve got it flaunt it! Otherwise, be quiet and humble. And when the dishonest detractors (masquerading as fans) attempt to malign you with half-truths and lies, you flaunt your superiority even more.
People may “think” Serena is “arrogant” but that is very far from the truth. Any contention that Serena is “arrogant” is nonsense. Serena Williams is not invincible. She will lose tennis matches. But “best player in the world”? Well, she’ll do until someone better comes along.
Wilson you are very biased Serena fan. Serena’s post match comments are just plain arrogant. There is speaking the truth and being arrogant about it and Serena’s comments are just plain disrespectful, self absorbed and arrogant.
I’m first admit I dislike Serena and I dislike her because of her arrogance. she is a great tennis player there’s no doubting that but she’s a very arrogant person.
it’s not going to kill her to give credit where credit due when she’s beaten.
There’s actually a world of difference between true modesty and false modesty when you win.
It’s actually quite difficult to explain, because it’s more in the mind than in the actual words.
An example of true modesty might be if you beat a great player with a brilliant performance, but said something like, “She’s a great player – I just got lucky today.”
It would still be in the realm of modesty if you were to say, “It was a good match,” or even, “I played quite well today.”
Depending on the circumstances, it might actually be necessary to admit you played “quite well” to express true modesty, if the result cannot truly be attributed to luck.
False modesty is usually characterised by throwing in excuses that you would normally reserve for a loss. For example, if you won a tournament, and said, “I can’t believe I won, because I was injured coming in here.”
This example of false modesty would be exacerbated if you had mentioned the injury before or during the tournament, if you had shown no visible signs of injury during the tournament, or if you said something like, “I didn’t want to come here at all.”
But, like I said, it depends what’s in the player’s mind when she says those words, and the objective truth of what actually happened.
False modesty is not something of which I could ever accuse Serena Williams.
From the United States Constitution; The Bill Of Rights: Amendment 1:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the FREEDOM OF SPEECH, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Unfortunately, there are many Americans who would dearly love to abridge freedom of speech. These little dictators would love to be able to control what others say and how they say it. These little dictators are not truly interested in an exchange of ideas. On the contrary they would love to control and manipulate and distort. To wit: Forget the Bill of Rights: You will be humble because we think you should be. Hardly the American spirit.
It should come as no surprise that since these little dictators wish to control the words of others they often play fast and loose with the truth, sometimes distorting it to fit their agenda, sometimes ignoring the truth altogether, spinning out stories that have little or no relation to reality or the truth whatsoever. In short they are liars. But “freedom of speech” does not mean you are free to lie.
When you make a conscious decision to engage with deliberation in willfully misleading or lying to others you lose all credibility. Three times now it has been written that Serena Williams did not give “credit” to an opponent or that she has “belittled” an opponent or that she is “disrespectful”. Samantha Stosur did not utter those word or write them; The Associated Press did not report those word in covering what Serena said.
But the little dictators blithely ignore Stosur (the very person they are supposedly speaking for) and they ignore The AP (who cares about what the press reports, right?). The little dictaors throw out their lies and expect others to take them at face value. But in a free society people are allowed to do research, to discover the facts on their own, to get at the whole truth and know who is really speaking the truth. And when the whole truth comes out the dictators suffer.
It is a lie to say that Serena Williams did not give credit to, belittled, or was disrespectful to Samantha Stosur (ask Samantha Stosur). And you are a liar if you say that she did any of those things. And if you perpetuate the lie(s) you have absolutely no credibility and all that you say will and should be viewed with suspicion and contempt.
And you bet Serena does not suffer from false modesty! She is a great tennis champion, proud of it, and is only too willing to tell you so. And she gladly leaves humility to the wannabes.
best!
Powerful.
Good.
Is that ‘good’ as in “good at tennis”, or ‘good’ as in “good and evil”?
Serena Williams: “Good” enough to be the among the very best to ever play the game of tennis. And “good” enough to deflect the “evil” emanating from not a few of her detractors.
Am I detecting a persecution-complex here?
In need of professional help? Board-certified psychologists and psychiatrists are available for expert diagnosis and effective treatment of all existing mental disorders. Sane, rational thought is only a phone call away.
“Enigma” would be my word of choice. I have to give Serena her due, she has accomplished a great deal. I think seemingly arrogant may be more appropriate.
My observations of Serena off court have nothing to do with ‘arrogance’ or any such thing. So I believe it is an on court persona she presents, more of a psychological mental reinforcement. Much like seeing the glass as half full and not as half empty( although it is half empty).
Of course some would say she should still commend her opponents on their tennis guile to be able to defeat her whether she was injured(or below par) or not, and maybe rightly so for diplomacy sake. However, she does sometimes commend others, Dementieva recently.
I sometimes see what she says as ‘thrash talking’ more than anything else. She is a driven person with a strong personality, and sometimes she seemingly forgets that her mind maybe willing to do something, but her body can’t respond likewise. It’s irritating, but it doesn’t mean that your opponent wasn’t skilled enough or smart enough tennis wise to capitalize on your predicament. It is competitive tennis after all.
Here is the thing though, I don’t think admitting to being below par necessarily means you are not ‘arrogant’ as well, nor is giving commiserations! There are varying degrees, different shades of gray etc.
LoL, Aaress, I am pleasantly intrigued by what drove you to ask such a poignant friday question..lol. You do know you were going to open a can of worms, if not Pandora’s little tennis box. Cheers by the way.
Hi Suzi,
Actually, we’ve done a few of the one-word Open Forum Fridays in the past, but this one (not surprisingly) has sparked the most debate!
Kind regards to you too!
DIVA
Recently, in Toronto, Serena and Venus were practicing in the mourning @ the tournament venue, (with their 3 dogs on the court), as fans discovered them practicing, a crowd had gathered, you can image the excitement, these fans had thought they hit the jackpot! Well, not for long, the sisters informed their fans, through their bodyguard, “NO PICTURES!”
So the fans watched and waited for them to finish on perhaps getting an autograph or a picture when they were done. NO SUCH LUCK !!
They ducked out the back way.
Maybe a better word would be :
UNGRATEFUL
Ok, there’s mine: Self-obsessed
That’s two words!
Ditto!
ARROGANT
ROBBED!
classless
CLASSY:
“When Williams went over to Clijster’s side of the court to shake her hand, she said it was Clijsters who told her, “I’m sorry.” Williams said, “I was like, ‘this isn’t your fault.’ “- from an article written by Liz Robbins in The New York Times entitled “Clisters Wins on Penalty Assessed on Williams”, dated September 12, 2009.
Take the link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/sports/tennis/13women.html?pagewanted=2&ref=todayspaper
The truth is out there. And the truth will set you free.
shameless
because she has used her US Open controversy to advertise her autobiography, and even appeared to use the murder of her half-sister Yetunde as an excuse for her misconduct:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mikenorrish/100001748/us-open-2009-serena-williams-cheapens-her-story-with-money-spinning-apology/
Capitalist!
From the on the baseline article entitled, “Serena Williams Apologizes to Lineswoman for US Open Tirade”:
Henri: “Andrew, grow up and stop being overly punitive to people you happen to dislike. Women’s tennis would suffer more than Serena if she were to be banned from the majors. Who banned McEnroe? Get a grip, Andrew!”
Very well said Henri. Very well said indeed.
Let’s keep that discussion to the appropriate article: http://www.onthebaseline.com/2009/09/14/serena-williams-officially-apologizes-to-lineswoman-for-us-open-tirade/
Honest!
For those who missed it:
From the on the baseline article entitled, “Serena Williams Apologizes to Lineswoman for US Open Tirade”:
Henri: “Andrew, grow up and stop being punitive to people you happen to dislike. Women’s tennis would suffer more than Serena if she were to be banned from the majors. Who banned McEnroe? Get a grip, Andrew!”
Absolutely briiliant, Henri. Absolutely brilliant indeed.
Wilson, please stop making your personal disagreements with Andrew a public matter at On the Baseline.
I don’t mind polite discussion between commenters, but you’re making this into a personal attack. You’ve already pointed out Henri’s comment to Andrew once, and that’s sufficient. No need to keep doing it.
“Personal attack”?!
To paraphrase a line you may be familiar with: Let’s tone down the hypersensitivity and gross exaggeration, shall we?
No one is personally attacking anyone. Let’s make that perfectly clearly.
You have an individual who, with great regularity, makes statements to this website that routinely subvert the truth. And latterly that same individual has endorsed Draconian sanctions against someone who is guilty only of a momentary verbal outburst. Rightly, these statements have drawn strong opposing responses.
But again, let’s be perfectly honest. The poster in question is not honest. And we are not talking about a difference of opinion here. If you say your name is Aaress and someone comes along and insists that your name is Arlene and then proceeds to tell everyone that it is Arlene, then you have something greater than a difference of opinion.
Someone is upholding a fact and someone is pushing a fiction; someone is telling the truth and someone is lying. And the person telling the truth, suffering under the offensive lie, has every right to use all the means at their disposal to discredit the liar.
That is precisely what is going on here: the strongest possible challenge to a liar. Beyond this website I have absolutely no interest in the individual in question.
And here’s something else that needs to be reiterated. A lie is a personal attack; it is an extremely offensive act and should be discouraged without reservation.
Now, for reasons known only to yourself you have chosen, under the guise of stopping a “personal attack”, to defend an individual who is partial to lying against any moderately forceful opposition (and believe me it is quite moderate indeed). Fine. You are free to defend anyone you like for any reason you like. But do not expect others to stand idly by and accept lies as truth. It’s not going to happen.
And by the way, in future it would be best for all concerned if, when coming across quotations made by other posters that are used by another poster in their comments, the individual in question refrain from drawing more attention to the quotations by commenting on them further; in this way an additional repetition of the quotation in the form of a rejoinder may be avoided.
Wilson Spaulding: You discredit only yourself with your vicious lies and defamatory comments about me. You don’t deal in truth – you just use whatever warped logic suits the arguments you want to make. Do not imagine that anyone gives you any credibility with your many paragraphs of rambling nonsense.
The truth is out there. And the truth shall set you free. Now go forth and find it and lie no more (at least make an effort).
Poised
after all these comments, I’d have to say
“controversial”
Interesting:
(“controversial”: good one, Sue)
classless
Peerless
Medalless (in singles)
Singular (in Grand Slam title wins among current players)
Singular in that she has only won one Grand Slam (the one consisting of the French Open 2002, Wimbledon 2002, US Open 2002 and Australian Open 2003 titles).
Singular: (the most Grand Slam titles of any current WTA player, eleven, AND the only current player who has a career Grand Slam).
Serena is not the only current player who has a Career Grand Slam. Daniela Hantuchová has one in mixed doubles.
Exceptional: (the most Grand Slam singles titles of any current WTA player, eleven, AND the only current player who has a career singles Grand Slam).