Serena B Anthony, loud mouthed teen prospect gets shown up by a guy who smoked in between changeovers

MELBOURNE -- Venus and Serena Williams discovered they're no match for the men on the ATP tennis tour, at least not yet.

In an impromptu 'Battle of the Sexes' at the Australian Open yesterday, first Serena, then Venus challenged No 203 Karsten Braasch to a set apiece, and he beat them both.

Serena fell 6-1, Venus 6-2. They played as intensely as they could, while Braasch performed with gentlemanly restraint.

"It was extremely hard," said the 16-year-old Serena. "I didn't know it would be that hard. I hit shots that would have been winners on the women's tour and he got to them easily."

That didn't stop her from boasting that "this time next year I'll beat him. I have to pump some weight . . . I have to work hard to be on the men's tour."

Venus, 17, wasn't about to concede too much either, especially since she broke Braasch's serve once.

"I can beat men in the 300s and up," she said. "He thought we couldn't get a point. He didn't think we could play. We showed him we could."

Asked if she might not want to take on players on the senior tour, or retired men as Billie-Jean King did against 1939 Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs in their ballyhooed 'Battle of the Sexes' in 1973, Venus shook her beaded head.

"I'm going for the young guns," she said.

Braasch smiled at their claims.

"Against anyone in the top 500, no chance," Braasch said, "because I was playing like 600 today."

The sister act played Braasch on Court 12 in the boondocks of the Australian Open complex. A few hundred fans and players who wandered by witnessed the event along with a crowd of media. No umpire, no linesmen, no ball boys, no scoreboard. And no prize money or bets. Only pride was at stake.

It all started a few days ago when the Williams sisters wandered into the ATP tour office at the Australian Open and boldly claimed they could beat any of the men ranked 200 or above. The bespectacled Braasch, a German who has sunk in the rankings after reaching 38 in 1994, happened to be in the office and took up the challenge.

Venus was still in the tournament at the time so a match was set between Serena and Braasch for Sunday. Rain postponed that until yesterday and with the sun shining Serena and Braasch showed up ready to defend the honour of their sexes.

At least that's how Serena saw it. For Braasch, it was a joke. He never even considered the possibility he might be ridiculed by the other men players if he lost.

"Everyone knew that there's no chance for them," he said. "They were talking to me, that I should go out and beat them by as much as possible. They said make it 24 points and go off the court."

He played, he said, for fun, "because tennis doesn't have to be serious, especially when you're out of the tournament." Braasch lost last week in the singles and doubles.

When Riggs lost to King at the Houston Astrodome, there was a crowd of more than 30 000 -- the biggest in tennis history. That nationally televised exhibition, four months after Riggs' 'Mother's Day Massacre' of Margaret Court, did more to establish women's tennis than any other match or tournament.

The Williams sisters, in their way, are bringing new life to the women's tour, even if they couldn't beat Braasch. Venus reached the final of the US Open and the quarters here. Serena has beaten three top 10 players since turning pro a few months ago. Each has the personality and flash to make the sport more popular than ever.

Braasch, a left-handed junk ball expert with a convoluted service motion, won the first five games against Serena. He ran her dizzy all over the court, showing her a befuddling assortment of spins.

He could have hit harder if he wanted, taken her out of points sooner, but as her unofficial coach, Nick Bollettieri, noted at courtside, "He's being kind to her."

Venus, who had just changed into jeans after losing in the women's quarter-finals to Lindsay Davenport, showed up at Court 12 late and saw her sister getting trounced.

"I'd definitely take this guy on," she said. When Braasch held at love to 5-0, Venus' competitiveness got the better of her.

"Maybe I should go get dressed," she said to Bollettieri. "What do you think, Nick?"

"Go for it," he answered.

Venus raced across Melbourne Park, her multi-coloured beads flying among the surprised fans. She changed quickly and raced right back, arriving out of breath just as Serena won her only game when Braasch netted a backhand after a couple of deuces.

The small crowd roared for Serena, but Braasch closed out the set with an ace a few moments later.

As Serena and Braasch shook hands, Venus entered the court and issued her own challenge to Braasch.

Venus had as little success as Serena when the match got under way. She lost her first service game at love, managed only one point on Braasch's serve and dropped her next serve.

But after going down 4-0, Venus held serve at love as Braasch hit several errors.

Perhaps boredom was setting in because Braasch then lost his own serve to 4-2 when Venus cracked a sizzling forehand past him on her second break point.

Braasch wasn't about to let the set get away. He stepped up his pace a bit, overpowered Venus on her serve and closed out the match with an ace.

"I took at least 50 per cent off my serve," Braasch said.

"I came out with a few hard ones, but not too much because then it's not fun anymore and it was supposed to be fun." -- Sapa-AP

Apparently, Brasch's preparation for this match was a few cigarettes a couple of pints and a couple of rounds of golf prior to playing Venus then ranked 21 in the world. According to Venus' coach Bolletterri he took it "easy on her". Yeah if you can't beat a guy who was in his mid thirties ranked 203 in the world, and smoked during changeovers then I don't think you should be running your mouth. But then again the only thing Serena is better at than tennis is functioning in the world without any self awareness or consequences. Brasch quote said nobody in the top 500 would they even get close to and that on the day he played like he was 600. I am assuming that is due to the beer, golf, and cigarettes he ingested before and during his match with them. Yeah I sure want my tour sucked dry of hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure her wallet gets fatter. I mean what would I prefer my own tour's mid level players having money for better hitting partners and coaches or to send a statement by inflating Serena's bank account further and increasing her own bizarre disconnect with the real world.

What is this? An attack on Serena because she made Djoko look like a sad little git with his hormone & more money for men comments?

The interesting part is that there is gender-based separation of Men's vs Women's tour (if you ignore an event called Mixed doubles), but gender separation of prize is intolerable for the sake of a mythical 'equality'. Pretty interesting.

By such token, Mixed doubles should get the highest prize money, because at least there is 'less' gender separation.

I like both tours, but separately. The prize money discussion should be kept out when when genders are discussed.

I can understand 16 & 17 year old girls, being told they were unbeatable, getting a bit over-excited. I think the other pros were right telling him to do a Golden set on them, it might have helped later on.

Still, with Setena at #1 a match with a >200 ranked man would be fun, especially if he took it seriously. Top 1000 even.

Serena would lose 6-1 6-1 to any man in the top 1000. The power and speed differential is huge. As well the spin and 'work' on the ball. A serena 120mph serve is nothing like a Federer 120mph serve.

I mean when your opponent prepares for the match by playing golf, drinking beer and smoking in changeovers it doesn't seem he is too concerned he will lose. Even when Serena became number 1 we all know that she would get pummeled by any decent male lower level pro.

Except that isn't true if you listen to Serena. As recently as the late 2000s she used to be quoted as saying things like,"I have already beaten everyone on the Men's tour because I beat Andy Roddick at Bollettierri's." (paraphrase) Of course they were 12 years old, I doubt Serena would ever win a rematch, but that isn't the way Serena saw it apparently.

This paints a perfect picture, someone who can't beat a mid thirties journeyman, who is clowning you and messing around is now claiming she "already has beaten the entire ATP tour" because she beat a pubescent boy. Insert Captain  Jean Luke Smiley. She is just a terrible, and odious person who through false allegations of sexism has extorted millions upon millions in her career she could not earn on her own from her fellow coworkers. And to add insult to injury she acts as she has been some crusader for civil rights or something, so she not only wants the money through extortion, she wants us to love her for her altruism.

Another interesting side note after the match Venus after getting trounced said that they could beat a man, conveniently outside the top 300. Just after getting pummeled and clowned by a near retirement journeyman that was her response.

Braasch's response was pure comedic gold he said that the ATP had informed him that as he was losing a lot of points that week that in a week he would tumble down from 201 to just outside the top 300, so "if she waits a week we can have a rematch."

For some reason I missed this thread.  Just want to thank Socal for posting it - very interesting.  Ideally we would want a match up of say the top ten tennis players in the women's game versus say players ranked 500 to 509 in the men's game.  Say best of five set match up.  It would be interesting to see what the results would be.  Unfortunately it is unlikely to happen.  With experience women should be able to adapt tactics to get better results, even if that meant losing 6-3, 6-3, 6-1  rather than 6-2, 6-1, 6-0.

Nore Staat the guy was clowning them, he was smoking in changeover and had a couple of beers before he played them. If he opened up on them he would beat them 0 and 1 every set. The fact is I have seen Atp futures, which is lower than the challengers its for many young players. Any of those guys in the ATP futures would destroy the world #1 woman. The difference in both pace of shot and the speed of court coverage is not something you can get used to.

Heres a more interesting question.

In snooker, the womens game has bombed, and theyre thinking of making events mixed, or even having specifically mixed event, to give women more money and experience against top male players to get better.

Would some PROPER coed event, that is special mixed events help the WTA players adapt and get better?

temporary21 wrote:Heres a more interesting question.

In snooker, the womens game has bombed, and theyre thinking of making events mixed, or even having specifically mixed event, to give women more money and experience against top male players to get better.

Would some PROPER coed event, that is special mixed events help the WTA players adapt and get better?

No because it comes down to the genetic difference between a male and female. You can take the world's best, hardworking woman sprinter and race against the men's champion and he will beat 1000 times in a row unless he tears a hamstring in one of the races or something. By the way the women's tour was probably much more popular and watchable prior to these equal prize money changes. If they had their own events they would make less money but they could showcase their skills, which are still worth watching to millions of people without being forced into being the warm up act.

No chance, no woman could make a competitive set against any man in the top 500, probably higher.

I always remember playing a set against my sister-in-law, who was a good County player whereas I was just a casual club player who'd only taken the sport up a couple of years earlier and had no coaching. I thought I'd get beat until we started the hit up and I realised how little there was on any of her shots and how much time I had. I played in virtual slippers because after two games she was so downhearted.

We have legal access to the best PED of them all, testosterone, and a massive structural advantage in the alignment of our pelvis to femur bones because we don't have to expel a large parasite out of our bodies.

bogbrush wrote:... We have legal access to the best PED of them all, testosterone, and a massive structural advantage in the alignment of our pelvis to femur bones because we don't have to expel a large ...  out of our bodies.

All good points.  I hadn't before considered the alignment advantage of pelvis to femur bones in speed of movement.  Not sure if there is an advantage in change of direction agility between male and female but since the female has necessarily evolved with baby production duties (sustenance, growth, protection, delivery) whereas the male hasn't one can imagine there may be advantages (agility) there also.   The male has evolved to capture and subjugate his prey (the female) whilst warding off his competitors (other males) in the baby production business - requiring speed, strength and agility.

In actuality, men are the expendable in terms of a sexual evolution. We aren't bigger, stronger, faster, and more aggressive because we are cool; we were made that way so we would do the fighting and dying. The woman particularly in ancient hunter gather societies, where most babies and people died in short order, looking at it from evolutionary perspective was too valuable to be spared doing stupid caveman things like fighting and hunting big game. For her to have two living children that would keep the clan, tribe, village etc. population stable she would probably have to give birth 5-8 times and that is to get two viable children and keep the population stable. That is why women, based on scientific studies are on average more flexible than men(hence their skill in gymnastics and yoga) they got to get the parasite as BB has so elegantly put it out of their bodies. Little did evolution realize that these skills would also help men rundown and hit a fuzzy yellow ball better than their counterparts of the other gender.