Tony Becca FROM THE BOUNDARY

WHO IS the greatest female tennis player that ever lived?

As one who has seen such greats as Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, and the beautiful if not so great, Gabriela Sabatini, that is a difficult question to answer.

That, however, and certainly as far as power and repertoire of strokes, brilliance and consistency were concerned, was up until a few days ago when Serena Williams, in a truly magnificent performance, outclassed her sister Venus in what, as far as I am concerned, was undoubtedly the greatest women's tennis match of my time, and probably the greatest of all time.

For two hours and 25 minutes, the two sisters, undoubtedly the best in the world, battled for a place in the semi-finals and the tennis, the action, was beyond imagination.

due respect

In a match second to none, Serena ran out the winner 7-6, 7-6 after hitting some wonderful and powerful serves, some glorious forehand and backhand strokes to every corner of the court and after running every inch of the court and then reeling off some near impossible and unforgettable strokes.

That match reminded me of the Rafael Nadal/Roger Federer final at Wimbledon a few months ago.

I am not one to pass the tag of "greatest" around freely. However, with due respect to champions like Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, even remembering some of the great clashes of the past, including those between Ilie Nastase and Borg in 1976, Borg and Connors in 1977, McEnroe and Borg in 1980 and 1981, Edberg and Becker in 1988, that match between Nadal and Federer which ended at 9-7 in the fifth was the greatest of my time. According to one like McEnroe, it was the greatest of all time and if it was not, it must have been very, very close to being the greatest of all time.

It was one of the few times when, at the end of a contest, I said to myself, and truly meant it, "why did one have to lose?".

electrifying match

That match had everything. It had power, the serves were fanastic, the strokes were superb and consistent, the pace of the match was electrifying and it was a battle to the end - a battle royal in which no one gave an inch, or even asked for an inch.

The match between Serena and Venus was no different. It also was extra special. In fact, although I am one of those who do not believe that men and women should be paid the same prizemoney in tennis for the simple reasons that the women, none of them, can defeat the men, any of the good ones, and more importantly, that the women, who play best-of-three sets as compared to the men who play best of five, work half as much, I enjoyed it immensely.

The Nadal/Federer match at Wimbledon lasted four hours and 48 minutes, it was more than twice as long as the Venus/Serena final at Wimbledon which ended in Venus' favour at 7-5, 6-4. It was also twice as long as the Serena/Venus contest in New York.

As a parade of skills, however, as a contest, Serena versus Venus at the US Open 2008 was a spectacle - one which, regardless of the cost and if I could afford it, I would gladly have paid for a front-row seat.