It's amazing to think that Serena Williams has been dominating tennis for nearly 20 years and there are still those who try to undermine her greatness by slinging disrespect her way.
Case in point — after defeating Lucie Safarova in straight sets during the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday, Williams's performance was dubbed "scrappy" by a reporter.
Serena wasn't feeling the description at all, telling the male journalist, "I think that's a very negative thing to say" and asking if he's serious, before suggesting that he apologizes, which he did.
He tried it ... and Serena made sure he failed.
Lesson learned — put some respect on the tennis queen's name and game!
Here's how she got him all the way together in just a few seconds.
We mean ... she won her first Grand Slam singles championship at the age of 17 and is still reigning over the sport today.
Those 22 Grand Slam singles titles are the most in the open era for women and men. Two more Grand Slam singles championships and she'll tie Margaret Court's 24 for the most all-time. If that's not undisputed greatness, we don't know what is.
In addition to those 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Serena owns the most major match wins in tennis history among both women and men.
You wouldn't call a Michael Jordan or Usain Bolt performance "scrappy," would you? Yet, that's the two-syllable word that one reporter chose to describe Williams defeating Lucie Safarova ... in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. How Sway!? How is that "scrappy"? A straight-sets victory sounds pretty comfortable to us. We might have understood "scrappy" being used to describe Serena's performance if her opponent pushed her to a third set, but not when she cruised.
The first step for Serena to teach this reporter the error of his ways was to let him know that his comments were "negative" and that Safarova is a "former top 10 player."
Then, she had to serve him this epic apology suggestion. "You should have been out there," Williams told him. "That wasn't very kind. I think you should apologize. Do you want to apologize?"
His response? "I do. I'm sorry."
Boom!
And for good measure, she made sure he realized that she put forth a "great" performance.
[Elbow nudge to the reporter] Straight sets wins are usually great, my guy.
What's there not to love about Serena?
All hail the Queen!
(Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
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