The actual question asked was “Do you think if you were playing your very best tennis, you could win a point off Serena Williams?”
This leaves huge ambiguity. How many points are we playing? What’s the setting? Does it count if she double faults, or only if I win the point by something I do?
If it’s a full set, and any point I get regardless of why I get it counts, I think 12% is probably low. Consider the huge advantages most amateurs have of doing very confusing things, and possibly getting some mercy after its clear there’s no true competition to be had, I would give quite high odds that she loses at least one point.
If this is more like a sudden death, “I’ll bust out my secret serve, and get a point off her in one shot”, 12% is stupid high.
I have no idea which of those (or the myriad middle options…) People thought they were answering, but for a male with typical bone density, a 120mph serve wouldn’t be enough to drive through your skull, but it will give her a point if it hits you in the face. You have nearly 500 milliseconds to dip out of the way, and let it go sailing over your head for that single fault.
a single point? sure, if we play enough i will at some point get lucky🤷
Statistically she’ll double miss her serve one day.
This is one of my favorite tweets of all time
I have played a lot of tennis. The only way I win a point against Serena is if she double faults.
The minimum number of points to win a 3-set tennis match is 48, winning 6-0, 6-0. If my only goal is to win a single point, I would give myself decent odds at distracting any given pro tennis player enough for them to lose one point. Across the two sets I might even be able to get two points if I’m really lucky.
However, I don’t plan on breaking my arm by trying to return any of their shots, so even in the (still probably majority) case where I don’t even win one point, at least my embarrassment will be short and controlled.
If my only goal is to win a single point, I would give myself decent odds at distracting any given pro tennis player
Taking your underwear off may work.
Fingers crossed they double fault at least once in their 24 service points, although I imagine they wouldn’t even use second serve power against some bozo
I kind of feel like people are neglecting some of this here. Like, yes, any pro tennis player would absolutely crush me. I would never get close to taking a game. However, even pro players lose points because they make mistakes. I don’t need to claim that I’m any match for a pro in order to claim that there’s a non-zero chance that they could blunder a single point.
Saying that it’s absolutely absurd that I could take a single point against someone like Serena is essentially saying that it’s absurd to suggest that there’s a decent chance Serena could make a mistake once in 48 points.
I honestly don’t know how good those odds would be, but it doesn’t seem crazy to me to suggest it could happen in around 1/10 matches.
Give me like 30 solid years to practice and I’m confident that I could narrowly snatch one point away from an elderly Serena Williams.
I don’t know. Am I aging too or just her?
Same, but only if I could also stop aging while Serena continues to. I think I might have a chance with 30 years of practice playing against a 73 year old Serena, assuming I get lucky and she breaks a hip.
I mean, she just has to serve out once in a match to win the scenario in this question. I don’t think it’s that unreasonable.
Isn’t a point in tennis what you get by winning 4 volleys in a round?
That’s a game.
A point is a single rally. Then winning 4 points (gotta win by 2 though) wins you the game. First to 6 games (but also by 2) wins you the set. And then the match is usually best of 3 or 5 sets.
Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged
Let me tell you about cricket next…
I think you say that because you don’t understand the actual point structure.
So first point is actually 15. But some people like to just say 5 instead. Now if you both have a point, then you would say 15 all or 5 all. After that, the next point is 30. If you’re tied it’s 30 all. Now the next point is, you got it, 40. If you’re tied, you would obviously say, duece. Now if you score a point, after having 3 points, which is called 40, and you would have more than 2 points than your opponent, then you have won the game, which is the name of a set of points and does not mean you won the whole game. But if you would have 1 more point than your opponent after scoring a point after your 3rd point, then instead of getting a game, you get advantage. You need to score 1 more point to win the game, which is just a set of points and not the whole game. If you have advantage, and your opponent scores a point then you lose your advantage, and it’s right back to duece, which is what you say when both players have 40, which is actually 3 points.
Easy right?
You say the first point is 15, but you must remember that both players start on an egg, called love.
Lol FML. I totally forgot about love.
Out of context that would be a truly bleak statement.
I don’t love this.
Honestly, I have no idea how tennis works.
It is honestly a difficult game to get into. But of a steel learning curve, and the point system doesn’t help. Very fun game and ive seen there’s a huge community of people that play it, which is great for networking
Every time I see this I think, if I was asked my response would be “has she just had a limb amputated? If so, probably still no but maybe.”
Why say horse when squirrel exist? I don’t mean to toot my own petard or anything, but I could beat the shit out of the average squirrel.
Tennis has a long history of ‘Battle of the sexes’ matches.
1998: Karsten Braasch vs. the Williams sisters Another event dubbed a “Battle of the Sexes” took place during the 1998 Australian Open between Karsten Braasch and the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena Williams had claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world’s top 200, so Braasch, then ranked 203rd, challenged them both. Braasch was described by one journalist as “a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple of bottles of ice cold lager”. The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park, after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. He first took on Serena and after leading 5–0, beat her 6–1. Venus then walked on court and again Braasch was victorious, this time winning 6–2. Braasch said afterwards, “500 and above, no chance.” He added that he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game “fun” and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much more easily and put spin on the ball that female players could not handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350.
We’re still talking about professional athletes though…. If you were good enough to beat any of them then why the hell are you not doing exactly that?
Edit: formatting…
My mom could kick my ass at tennis ( …in her prime, she’s in her eighties now), I don’t need to ask Ms. Williams to do it.
Mom was, in fact, a tennis enthusiast when I was a kid and played weekly, and even at my best I had a crap backhand.
Serena Williams would demolish me.
I mean I guess there’s a non-negligible chance of her hitting a double fault…
So she tries to T them up on the first serve and it goes long. The second serve will surely be a dink over the net because the opponent is nothing for her to fear so they rush the net , return the serve and in an instant their asshole is the size of a tennis ball
I guess there is a better than 0 chance but I wouldn’t bet against her
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/survey-results/daily/2019/07/12/ce84b/1
Other fun stuff from the same poll:
- Scots are the least likely to think they could do it, and also the least likely to say “don’t know”. We know where we stand apparently
- 2% of 65+ year old people think they could do it, although 2% is getting well into the territory where it could just be insincere answers
2% insincere/ random/ did not understand the question/ thought the question was actually asking the opposite… that’s pretty low. Usually hard to get that under 6-7%.
The lizardmen quotient probably goes down with age.
Yeah 3-4% is the lizard men quotient
Didn’t realize don’t know was an answer. I feel like that’s a solid answer if you figure there’s a chance of an error or something. I wouldn’t put it since I don’t play, though.
Serena: Omae ha mou shindeiru Jason: NANI
Man, unless you’re on the pro tour, you’re getting handled easily. Tennis is about angle knowledge and of course you have to be in top condition.
Serena wipes the floor with the avg man and college level tennis players of all genders.
I dunno man, I might accidentally score a point.
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking. I can also get a point off of djocovic, just give me a lot of chances. If we’re talking about a point in one game, nah to either. A point in a 3 set match? I think so.
maybe in Wii Tennis 🤷♀️
Buddy, you think 23-time grand slam winner Serena Williams isn’t going to dust your ass at wii tennis too? 😤
