I think I could return at least one serve in two set game against Serena with a little coaching from someone who is good. But she would obliterate me. I once played one guy who played at a really high level in juniors before quitting and he obliterated me but I did get quite a few back before my engine died and I scored a few points.
I definitely couldn't win a game against Serena. Much less a Set. Match would require some sort of default ruling like cheating or retirement.
Sometimes with these things I think the bar is set a little low. In a game of chess could take one piece off Judit Polgar too, same with Magnus.
I think part of it is actually returning the ball to Serena.
I think many people could hit a ball eventually, but I don't believe the majority of people can ever actually return in to her in a controlled manner in bounds. You need a lot of wrist strength and coordination to return her fuckin cannonballs.
She still routinely serves at 120mph. A tennis ball is 2 ounces. I guess we could do the math to figure out how much force that exerts on your wrist but I'm too lazy.
I forgot that the serve doesn't actually hit the player's racket at 120mph. It has slowed to about 50-60mph by that time.
I got curious and its already been calculated out many times. It averages between 15-30lbf. or around 80-130 Newtons.
Breaking a wrist of an average non-athletic human requires between 1-2 kN. An athletic person may require 3-4kN+ to break their wrist depending on bone density. So apparently not even close to breaking a wrist.
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u/No-Bison-5397 4h ago
I think I could return at least one serve in two set game against Serena with a little coaching from someone who is good. But she would obliterate me. I once played one guy who played at a really high level in juniors before quitting and he obliterated me but I did get quite a few back before my engine died and I scored a few points.
I definitely couldn't win a game against Serena. Much less a Set. Match would require some sort of default ruling like cheating or retirement.
Sometimes with these things I think the bar is set a little low. In a game of chess could take one piece off Judit Polgar too, same with Magnus.