No, not on a tennis court. (That probably wouldn't be pretty!) But the following is from CNNSI.com and I felt like I should share. For the record, I agree with Gaby. Except that I'm not sure if you can even include JennyCap in their company much longer, truth be told.

[quote] Sabatini: Williams' making game predictable, boring

Gabriela Sabatini thinks the Williams sisters are making women's tennis tired
and predictable.

The 32-year-old Argentine, who retired six years ago, doesn't like the power
game of Venus and Serena, who are seeded 1-2 for Wimbledon and will try
to meet in yet another Grand Slam final.

"Perhaps they hit the ball too hard for the good of the game," Sabatini told
The Mail newspaper on Sunday. "Unless other players are motivated to fight,
the game could start to be boring."

Sabatini, who won the 1990 U.S Open and was the Wimbledon runner-up
the next year, said the Williams siblings could split the women's game into two
tiers: the sisters plus Jennifer Capriati at the top level, and then everyone else
below.

"It wouldn't be good for women's tennis," Sabatini said. "Before the Williams
girls arrived with their power, it was probably a more enjoyable game to
watch. You could see some artistry, not just athleticism. You saw players
doing different things, coming to the net, varying the pace of the game.

"Today you don't see too much strategy. It's mostly hard hitting -- and it
seems few players other than Jennifer Capriati can give the Williams sisters a
match. They hit the ball hard, then harder still. You feel sorry for the girl on the
other side of the net."

Venus and Serena have played in the finals of two of the past three major
tournaments, with Venus -- at 22, 15 months older -- winning the U.S. Open,
and Serena the French Open.

Their face-offs rarely sparkle, and the sisters were asked by British network
ITV on Sunday about speculation that the outcomes of their matches are
predetermined.

"It's said, but it's not true," Serena said.

Asked whether they ever pull out of tournaments to avoid playing each other,
Serena said: "It never happened."

---

What a crock of.... The women's game is more popular now than it ever was. There are several players coming along who can hit with the Williams' sisters, and both Serena and Venus have shown that when they are NOT FACING EACH OTHER, they utilize strategic hits and ball placement as much as hard shots.

Sabatini needs to look at her own miserable record (as well as all of the female players of that era) against one Steffi Graf pre-1990 and post-1993 - when they can look at their miserable records against Seles - before she starts talking about the lack of depth in women's tennis.

It's not a personal attack on the Williams girls. I'm sure whoever was interviewing Gabriela asked her what she thought of the game today, etc., etc. It's simply her opinion. And the point is not a lack of depth, but rather a lack of variety.

The top players in the early 90s were all very close to one another and the major differences were stylistic. Graf was the purest of athletes, an aggressive baseliner but completely diffent in style from the other dominant aggressive baseliner, Monica Seles. Then there was Sabatini, who particularly at that time was the most complete player -- an all-courter with amazing shotmaking ability from everywhere on the court. She was better at net than Seles or Graf, but totally different in style from Navratilova. You also had Sanchez-Vicario, a baseline counterpuncher, and Jennifer Capriati -- the hard-hitting phenom. Those were the top 6 players and the girls contending for majors at the time. Counter that with today's top six -- Venus, Serena, JennyCap, Monica, Clijsters, and Henin. The top five all play the same game with varying degrees of success. Henin is the only one of the bunch that I would call an artist.

Sorry, but it's not as interesting. No one's saying better or worse. Just that power's taken over and it has the potential to be detrimental in the long run. It's a valid point.

There is truth in that, but to blame the Williams Sisters for the dominance of power baseliners is incorrect. The cycle began with the arrival of Fraulein Forehand, the first woman to slam winners from the baseline consistently. Nearly all the top players now are Graf's spiritual children. The change in the women's game was already well underway in Gaby's time, and only the disappearance of Seles & Capriati from the scene for a while obscured the trend.

I'm not sure the difference between the styles of Graf and Seles is any greater than the difference between Seles and Serena, though. I think Sabatini was more conscious of the differences between them because she had to play them. Plus, as others have pointed out, Henin and Hingis play with great finesse--though even Henin hits the ball pretty hard. There's no question though that serve-and-volleyers like have virtually disappeared. Are there any under the age of 25?

The serve-and-volleyers are gone. The women with the ability to do it are too easily injured for that game and the women who could slip into it and use it relatively easily don't have the fitness. Eventually there will be a new serve-and-volleyer. These things are cyclical.

It's even possible that Serena or Venus could become a serve-and-vollyer. But right now, the women's game is safely entrenched in the baseline.

I wouldn't say Gaby's blaming the Williams sisters, really. They're the most powerful of the power players and they're numbers one and two in the rankings; if you're going to discuss power as the current state of the game, Venus and Serena are naturally going to be the focus.

People always talk about how boring the early to mid-80s were because the tour was saturated with little Chris Evert clones. Everyone was the same and until you got to the late rounds, nothing interesting happened. Although now they hit the ball harder, all the up & comers are little power player clones. It's running the risk of being the same scenario just with more oomph. I think that's what Gaby recognizes.

On a side note, that's why Gaby was such a splash at 14 -- she played from the baseline, but she was nothing like Chris Evert. Ironically, when she first arrived on the scene, Gaby was known for hitting the ball incredibly hard and with "macho topspin," as Mary Carillo descibed it during the 1985 French semi between Evert/Sabatini. All things are relative, I suppose.

[quote]Originally posted by Gaga4Gaby:
"It wouldn't be good for women's tennis," Sabatini said. "Before the Williams girls arrived with their power, it was probably a more enjoyable game to watch. You could see some artistry, not just athleticism."

---

Sounds like she is blaming the Williams sisters. I only think the women's game is down a little right now because of all the injuries, variety or not. But it's still more entertaining than the men.

I can certainly see why people say Gaby's blaming Venus & Serena based on the black-and-white quotes from the article, but I think that was the author's intention. The tone of the piece is much more accusatory than the quotes themselves. The media will take any comment they can and use it to provoke commentary from the Williams family, you know? They're always asking them in interviews, "Oh, did you hear what so-and-so said?" I think a little of that is going on here.

Gabriela Sabatini is/was one of the nicest, most down-to-earth women in tennis. She's not a trash talker and she's not out to get some kind of spotlight back. Hell, she gave all that up willingly at a very young age because she hated it so much. You're right, she did say "before the Williams sisters," but I think that's more to indicate the time period to which she's referring (late 90s) rather than a direct slam. I can honestly say I know my stuff when it comes to Gabriela, and she's just not that snarky or vindictive a human being.

[quote]Originally posted by Gaga4Gaby:
Gabriela Sabatini is/was one of the nicest, most down-to-earth women in tennis.

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Hey Gaga--You just want to keep this post alive so you can keep talking about Gaby, don't ya??


OK, I'm here to help keep it at the top...

Yo, BBall --

I cannot tell a lie. It's nice to talk about Gaby in an active forum for a change. If you go to more specific forums for Gaby, it's full of perverted old straight men swapping doctored nude photos of my girl. Nice to rest assured I won't find that here.

Thanks for supporting an addict