203rd-ranked German Karsten Braasch beat Serena Williams and Venus Williams back-to-back at the 1998 Australian Open.
Tennis writer Harvey Fialkov caught up with the 50-year-old Braasch, the second seed at the ITF’s Seniors World Individual 50s draw in Flamingo Park, to recall the day he swept a 16-year-old Serena and a 16th-ranked Venus in succession—without even unleashing his first serve. (Venus Williams was ranked 10th in the world in 1998. -bfh)
“I was sitting there [in the tournament office] when the girls were saying they could beat any man ranked outside 200,” Braasch told Fialkov. “I said ‘I’m 203 in the world and we can do it if you want to’. I [lost in the first round of singles and doubles] so I had another five days in Australia and had nothing to do.”
The bearded Braasch, wearing glasses resembling swimming goggles and a baggy Reebok shirt, looked more like a mad scientist than a tennis pro as he squared off against Serena on Court 17 at Melbourne Park in a match played before a few hundred fans without linespeople, a chair umpire or TV cameras.
The quirky lefty’s herky-jerky serve and masterful skill shifting spins and creating obscure angles befuddled the teenage Serena as Braasch prevailed, 6-1.
“I hit shots that would have been winners on the women’s Tour and he got to them easily,” Serena said afterward. “This time next year I’ll beat him. I have to pump some weight.”
Venus, who supported Serena from the stands, challenged Braasch immediately after the set to only a slightly better result. The German, who had a fondness for smoking Marlboros during some changeovers, extended rallies and deployed the same disorientating array of spins defeating Venus, 6-2.
“Both sisters are great tennis players and hit the ball extremely well,” Braasch recalled in an account he wrote of the match for The Guardian titled How to Beat Both Williams Sisters. “However, if you’ve been playing on the men’s tour there are certain shots you can play that are going to put them in difficulty.
“I was hitting the ball with a degree of spin they don’t face week-in, week-out. Another key is to chase down every shot. In our match, they were putting shots into the corners that on the women’s tour would be winners but I was able to return them. In the end I won, but neither myself, nor Venus or Serena took the game too seriously—we were just having a bit of fun.”
Still, the man who conquered both sisters in succession offered them a rematch after hearing Serena’s thoughts on the match.
“Apparently, after the game, Serena and Venus immediately told the press they wanted to challenge a male player again,” Braasch said. “This time they revised the ranking of the man they wanted to face, to 350 in the world. I informed the journalist who told me this that in the next week I was set to lose a lot of ATP points and drop down to 350 in the rankings. I told him that if Venus and Serena waited just one week they could challenge me all over again!”
Braasch learned what happens in Melbourne, stays in Melbourne.
“That (rematch) never came about, but when I saw Venus a few months later at the French Open she came up to me with a big smile on her face and said, ‘You know that thing in Australia—it never happened!’ ” Braasch recalled.
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Who can forget this?
FC Dallas under-15 boys squad beat the U.S. Women’s National Team in a scrimmage.
Posting this video is not meant to bash women, it is to protect women from leftists who won’t accept biological fact.
Naw … I’ve seen 105 lb women beat the snot out of 220 lb men in movies.
Sometimes the woman will beat the snot out of 3 or 4 at a time!
If it’s in a movie, it must be factual.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
Men who have sub 4 minute miles: Thousands
Women who have sub 4 minute miles: Z E R O
Tim, the film “Broken Arrow” has a 100 pound park ranger chick kicking 280 lb linebacker type asses up and down the set.
Priceless!
I’ve always enjoyed losing wrestlin’ matches with women, but it cost me thousands of dollars of dinners in the long run….
A few years back, when the US ladies soccer team was dominant, they scrimmaged against a Dallas under 15 boys team, This wasn’t the best team in the country, not even the best boys team in Dallas, yet those 14 (and under) boys beat the ladies 5-2;
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/usmnt-qualifies-for-fifa-world-cup-the-americans-are-headed-to-qatar-despite-loss-to-costa-rica/
As for tennis, I would bet that any one of the top 20 men in college could beat the number ranked woman in the world ten out of ten times.
From my reading, the only athletic endeavor that women are at least on par with and maybe a smidge better than men is long-distance swimming. Their body fat ratio and hip size are more conducive to buoyancy and can more effortlessly move through the water.
Wrong link, this one works;
https://www.90min.com/posts/4833646-some-people-think-it-s-funny-that-the-usa-women-s-national-team-were-apparently-beaten-by-u15-boys
Here’s another data set, US high school boys vs. Olympic women in 2016:
https://boysvswomen.com/#/
Serena & Venus Williams are women, just like Michael LaVaughn Robinson is.
Serena’s personality ids Pure Shit.
She helped set Naomi Osaka on the wrong mindset & career path.
Fucking Bitch thinks she’s Will Smith’s Wife or something.
“She helped set Naomi Osaka on the wrong mindset & career path.”
I think Osake took that path pretty much on her own. I never saw Serana coming out with “woke” face masks, Osaka did. I’ve seen Osaka wear George Floyd, Jacob Blake, BLM, and Breonna Taylor face masks, she is a lost soul.
Coco Gauff is also pissing me off with her woke shit, I root for her to lose every time.
In all of life it is not what is “fair”, it is what the parties agree to. Words to live by.
As soon as women’s sports stops agreeing to compete against men with gender dysphoria (or faking it), maybe this will stop. I have no sympathy for girls or women who won’t take a stand, because they must know by now that they can’t win against guys and they don’t deserve our sympathy if they are willing to play along with the men’s mental illness for the sake of political correctness.
Heres a shocker. There are at least 6 Women’s Track and Field world records that are obviously due to use of male hormones. The 400m and 800m run records are still held by Eastern European women from countries that no longer exist. As are 2 records in the throwing events
And what about Flo Jo? Heres someone who wasnt even in the top three in the 100m in 1984. Then she disappears from view in 1988 and then shows up at the Trials running half a second faster at age 27. Thats a bit unusual, aint it? Especially when she sets a record that still stands 34 years later. Looks like she dipped into the ‘roids, dont it? Especially as she looked like a completely different person in 1988
But of course, everybody overlooked the obvious, cause Flo Jo was “proving” that women were more equal than anyone had believed
In a world ruled by lesbians, pædos, and trannys… anti-feminists prove how trad they are… by Defending(TM) wymyns’ sports.