Former doubles world No. 1 Rennae Stubbs feels Serena Williams and Roger Federer elevated the game to “a different stratosphere.” Williams and Federer, who are widely considered as one of the greatest players in tennis history, were also drawing attention to themselves with their fashion.
Recently, Nick Kyrgios picked Federer as the biggest fashion icon in the game. “I mean, Serena and Roger, really, they embraced the fashion side of tennis as well, you know, with the clothing that they would arrive on the court.
They took tennis to a different stratosphere in my opinion,” Stubbs said on the Off The Ball podcast, per Sportskeeda.
Stubbs on Williams, Federer retiring at the same time
Williams, 40, retired from the game after this year’s US Open.
On the other side, 41-year-old Federer is set to leave professional tennis after the Laver Cup. “But it is quite a vacuum that they leave. Roger and Serena are so synonymous. It was interesting because I had talked about this with Serena years ago and it was a guess that they were both retired at the same time.
And look at that, they’ve done that,” Stubbs said on the same.” Williams retired with 23 Grand Slams, just one short of Margaret Court’s all-time 24 Majors. On the ATP Tour, Federer finished with 20 Grand Slams – the third most, just behind Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Stubbs felt that Williams and Federer could have definitely won more Grand Slams under the right circumstances. “With the injuries Roger had sustained over the last year and of course with Serena losing a year (while) having her child and then trying to come back from that.
Certainly, they could have probably achieved even more Grand Slam titles, both of them,” Stubbs added. In the same interview, Stubbs said Williams had a beautiful send off and she believes Federer will get the same a the Laver Cup in London.
