. . .the sexist crudity out of the argument, it's a variation on what people used to say about Mickey Mantle in various ways: if he tried harder/didn't spend all his time partying, he'd be the greatest player who ever lived. Of course, there were three major problems with this argument:

--Mantle spent his entire career in pain, from osteomyelitis that was bad enough to make him 4F during the Korean War, and later with a horrifying string of injuries: partying all the time might have been the only thing that kept him going through that;

--he was convinced that he wouldn't live to see forty, because all of his male relatives had died young from various diseases related to the mining profession. Maybe he should have worked harder at his craft and recovering from injuries rather than partying, but it's probably harder to stay focused when you're convinced your time on this planet is short;

--he *was* one of the greatest players ever: I'd take his career over any center fielder other than Mays, Cobb, and maybe Speaker, and in terms of absolute peak value there was no one better (he won three MVPs and really should have won six or seven).

Now, I'm not saying that Serena has had demons like Mickey did, but who knows? David Duval's recent re-emergence at the US Open is a rather blatant reminder that a top-notch athlete can flame out suddenly and be more or less finished at a young age--Serena's made a remarkable resurgence and deserves credit for it, not to have some joker telling her that she's fat and that she can do better than winning three out of the last four majors.

Steffi's a pretty hard nut to crack (and, to bring up an unfortunate fact that causes me to shake a fist at the German penal system, she probably has at least four or five titles that would be in Monica Seles' trophy case if that lunatic hadn't destroyed her career), but Serena is looking awfully good these days, and might make a late career run at the big number. Even if she doesn't, seeing an allegedly competent writer suggest that winning eleven Grand Slam titles is somehow underachieving is rather appalling.