Is Serena Better Than Tiger?

By David Shepard, OTSL Special Contributor

Serena Williams won her 14^th major title at this year's Wimbledon. Another prominent athlete has 14 slams and that is a golfer named Tiger Woods. Two angles can be taken with this.

Angle One: Which athlete will win more majors from this point forward?  Even though Serena plays a much more grueling sport, she has no intentions of retiring any time soon. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is 36 years old and has not won a major in four years.

Angle Two: (THE ONE I’M TAKING) Can we say that Serena Williams has had a better career than Tiger Woods?  With the following I will argue why you can make a strong argument that she has.

Angle One: Serena is just as dominant as Tiger, but became a superstar at a younger age.

Despite the fact that Serena Williams played her first major three years after Tiger Woods made his debut, she has equaled his number at 14. In all fairness to Tiger, when he won the masters in 2001, he became the first golfer to hold all four majors at one time. However, Serena is the last men’s or women’s player to hold all four titles at the same time since Steffi Graff. Commentator Cliff Drysdale (a tennis lifer if ever there was one) says that Serena’s era is a whole lot deeper than Graff’s era. Woods also has a streak of playing in 12 consecutive majors without a win. Williams worst streak of her career was seven majors without a win. Her excuse was that she was 16 and 17 years old during this major winless streak. Serena won her first major at 17 years old, Tiger won his first when he was four years older.

Serena Is The Lion

Career Majors

                                                        Williams    Woods

Majors                                                 14            14

Age of 1st Major Win                            17            21

Best Streak Of Consecutive Majors         4              4

Most Majors Played Without A Win         7            12*

*Current Streak

Angle Two: Serena wins more and finishes more in contention than Tiger.

Serena Williams has as many majors despite playing her first major tournament three years after Tiger Woods made his debut. She has also played in 16 less majors. Despite all that Williams has just two less top 10 finishes than Woods in majors. Also, despite the fact that Serena is just 30 years old and Woods is 36, Williams has two more years in which she has at least one runner up finish in a major.

Williams Outdoes Woods

Career in Majors

                                                    Williams     Woods

First Major appearance                   1998           1995

Amount Of Majors                               48              64

Top 10 Finishes                                  33              35

Years w/At Least One 2nd Place          12              10

Angle Three: Serena Still Wins, greatest women’s tennis player in today's game. With Tiger this is not the case.

In the last four years Serena Williams has won five majors to Tiger's none. She has also won five grand slams at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in her career. Tiger doesn’t have five victories at any major in his career. Serena finished in the top 10 of a major in the last four years nine times. Wood’s has only accomplished this six times despite playing in the same amount of majors. 

Williams Still Has It

Majors in the Last Four Years

                                                      Williams       Woods

Majors Won                                         5                0

Top 10 Finishes                                   9                6

Consecutive Top 10 Finishes                 7               3

Will they both go down among the best to ever play their respective sport?  Yes.  But right now the case could be made that Serena will be playing at an elite level longer than Tiger.