Serena entering second prime?

A couple of years ago you could still have a decent argument over who has been the greatest women's tennis player of this generation.

You had Venus and Serena Williams, who had rocketed to the top and then drifted off into other things. You still had Martina Hingis and her brief but dominant run and Lindsay Davenport and Justine Henin were somewhere in the equation.

Venus and especially Serena have ended that argument by showing they may have several years and major titles left to win.

Serena's latest win, an Australian Open blowout, now has her approaching the best of the best in women's tennis history. She's now reached three straight major finals. Really, who out there other than Venus can stay with her when she's playing well.

While Serena's latest win did not move her up in the rankings, it did help sister Venus. Players in my system get bonus points for beating players in finals with major titles. Serena now has 10 and that means Venus' two Grand Slam final wins over Venus are worth 5 points instead of 4.5 points. Plus Venus and Serena teamed up to win the women's doubles title, which is worth 0.5 points. It isn't much but it was enough for Venus to edge past Hingis.

Here is the updated list of the 32 greatest women's tennis players in open history:

Rank, Player, Country, Years, Points
1. Martina Navratilova, Czechoslovakia, 1974-2006, 165.63
2. Steffi Graf, Germany, 1985-1999, 154.13
3. Chris Evert-Lloyd, United States, 1971-1989, 113.40
4. Margaret Smith-Court, Australia, 1968-1975, 96.75
5. Monica Seles, Yugoslavia, 1989-2002, 92.85
6. Billie Jean King, United States, 1968-1983, 88.14
7. Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, Australia, 1971-1980, 83.35
8. Serena Williams, United States, 1998-2009, 77.09
9. Venus Williams, United States, 1997-2009, 65.76
10. Martina Hingis, Switzerland, 1996-2006, 65.47
11. Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario, Spain, 1989-2000, 64.35
12. Justine Henin, Belgium, 2001-2007, 62.14
13. Hana Mandlikova, Czechoslovakia, 1980-1987, 47.65
14. Lindsay Davenport, United States, 1996-2005, 47.40
15. Maria Sharapova, Russia, 2004-2008, 32.61
16. Jennifer Capriati, United States, 2001-2002, 29.93
17. Virginia Wade, England, 1968-1977, 28.92
18. Tracy Austin, United States, 1979-1981, 28.55
19. Mary Pierce, France, 1994-2005, 27.15
20. Gabriela Sabatini, Argentina, 1988-1991, 27.03
21. Amelie Mauresmo, France, 1999-2006, 25.00
22. Kim Clijsters, Belgium, 2001-2005, 23.76
23. Conchita Martinez, Spain, 1994-2000, 22.69
24. Jana Novotna, Czechoslovakia, 1991-1998, 21.55
25. Ann Haydon-Jones, England, 1968-1969, 20.17
26. Kerry Melville-Reid, Australia, 1970-1977, 15.61
27. Virginia Ruzici, Romania, 1978-1980, 15.40
28. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 2004-2007, 15.22
29. Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 2007-2008, 14.76
30. Helena Sukova, Czechoslovakia, 1984-1993, 14.74
31. Mimi Jausovec, Yugoslavia, 1977-1983, 14.41
32. Mary-Joe Fernandez, United States, 1989-1997, 13.33