WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND — The eternal wrangling between aloof, know-it-all computers and the noble human species that created them has found its latest hearing in the case of Serena Williams, the alleged No. 2 women's tennis player in the world.
After Williams willfully arranged on Saturday that she will hold three of the four Grand Slam titles all the way through the summer to Flushing Meadow, she signed on to the commonly held belief that computers, in addition to proving poor at turning on and off with any dispatch, cannot seem to rank tennis players with any lucidity.
"I think if you hold three Grand Slam titles," Williams said, "maybe you should be No. 1, but not on the WTA Tour obviously, so . . . "
After the room of listeners finished laughing, she dipped into her reservoir of wryness and said, "You know, my motivation is maybe just to win another Grand Slam and stay No. 2, I guess."
While Serena remains No. 2 even after her 7-6 (3), 6-2 win over Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final on a blustery, sunny Saturday afternoon on Centre Court, the woman Venus clobbered in a go-to-the-loo-and-miss-it semifinal, Dinara Safina, remains No. 1 based on the 12-month ranking system.
Even though Serena actually routed Safina, 6-3, 6-2, in a U.S. Open semifinal last September, and 6-0, 6-3 in an Australian Open final in January, before Venus added garnish with the 6-1, 6-0 pasting of No. 1 in the 51-minute Wimbledon semifinal -- the worst loss ever for a No. 1 player, according to tour records -- the computer studied all that and harrumphed, possibly because it spends so much of its life indoors.
"It's a result of tournament by tournament, day to day that you play," Safina said Friday evening in self-defense, a defense echoed by Venus when she quibbled with a British reporter and said she "respects Dinara Safina immensely."
Continued Safina: "I won Rome. I won Madrid. I've been in the final, French Open."
Rolling with a guffawing audience by Saturday afternoon, Serena said, "I think Dinara did a great job to get to No. 1; she won Rome and Madrid," but then could not resist busting into a scoffing laugh.
This bolstered her statement at the French Open about the women's tour being more entertaining than the men's because, well, "It's way cattier."
