Serena Williams has played the final tournament of her tennis career.
The 23-time grand slam-winner announced her desire to "evolve away from tennis" last month.
The 40-year-old has become an icon of the sport and her achievements put her amongst the game's greatest names.
In a world where stats can tell you almost anything, what do they say about this titan of tennis as she leaves the court for likely the final time?
Can we definitively say Serena is the GOAT (greatest of all time)?
Comparing players across eras and across competitions is impossible to do completely accurately or objectively.
But what we're here to do is celebrate the brilliance of Serena Williams as she waves goodbye to tennis.
This may help some people out in their next tennis GOAT debate, it may just be a trip down memory lane, or simply a fun exercise to try to sum up what makes her so special.
So, a lot's been said about Serena Williams's quest to match Margaret Court with 24 major titles. Well, she didn't get there.
Cut and dry, then. She's no match for the great Aussie champ. See you at the next GOAT debate.
But of course it's not that simple.
First we have to look at when their titles were won.
Court won her majors from 1960-73 – largely in the era before professionals were allowed to play at the majors.
Comparing players across eras is hard enough, but the "Open era" that started in 1968 is a good delineation. So, let's start by restricting it solely to titles after that point.
When we chuck in Olympic titles, Williams moves further ahead with her four gold medals.
But three of Williams's Olympic titles were won in the doubles alongside sister Venus, and if we're going to include that for the gold medals, then surely we have to do it for the majors too.
And suddenly, a new GOAT contender emerges when you start accounting for doubles.
But what if we weight doubles titles as half a singles title? After all, you do half the work, you should only get half the booty, right?
This narrows the gap, but Martina Navratilova is still well out in front with her 18 singles, 31 doubles and 10 mixed doubles titles, compared to Williams's 24-17-2 splits.
Navratilova is also one of the few players who can challenge Williams when it comes to longevity.
Almost all players start their professional careers as teenagers, slugging it out in occasional tour-level tournaments before making the breakthrough to the big time at the majors. And most hang around, picking up pay cheques in Acapulco and Monte Carlo long after their time as a competitive force is over.
But we're here to focus on just the pinnacle of the sport, so let's focus on the amount of time some of these all-time greats spent as genuine threats for major titles by looking at the gap between their first and last grand slam singles titles and finals.
As you can see, no-one can match Williams with that 18-year winning window from the 1999 US Open to the Australian Open in 2017, bearing in mind Nadal (2005-2022) and Djokovic (2008-2022) are still regularly winning slams.
And even extending it to the time between major finals, it's a double Williams win, with both sisters' first and last deciders 20 years apart, although Venus's winning peak (2000-2008) is the shortest of anyone in these lists.
And being at the top for so long comes with some very tangible rewards.
$erena William$
While it may be gauche to talk about money, it is another interesting lens through which to view Williams's career.
Tennis, relatively speaking, has a decent track record in recent times of offering equal prize money at majors, and Williams's on-court earnings are on a par with her contemporaries in the men's game.
In fact, according to the official numbers from the men's and women's tours, the 73-time title winner is behind only the 'Big Three' of Roger Federer (103 titles), Rafael Nadal (92) and Novak Djokovic (88) in terms of prize money won.
You'll notice there are very few old greats on that list. That's because those dollar figures are raw numbers, not adjusted for inflation. But also because the amount of money poured into tennis, and most sports, these days far outstrips those of yesteryear.
But that's nothing compared to the sponsorships, endorsements and brand deals available to modern-day athletes.
While marketing opportunities were relatively limited during the peaks of Billie Jean King and Margaret Court, Williams has dipped her toe into everything from NFTs to the NWSL.
And those at the top are globally recognisable, with top-flight tennis being played everywhere around the world.
She is consistently the highest-earning female athlete in the world and was the only woman on Forbes's list of the wealthiest athletes of the decade from 2010-2019, worth an estimated $US215 million ($310 million) at the time.
In 2021, despite not making a single final, Williams was number 31 on Forbes's list of the highest-paid athletes.
She only made around $300,000 from playing tennis, but $45 million off the court. Other GOAT contenders in the twilights of their careers Roger Federer ($700k and $90m) and Tiger Woods ($40k and $68m) had similar splits.
Williams and Naomi Osaka (number 19) were the only women in the top 50.
The fact of the matter is, the entirety of Williams's greatness cannot be encapsulated by sheer stats. Her legacy is tied up in intangible concepts like race, gender and overall impact both in and out of the sport.
But the numbers are nice, too. And by most quantifiable measures, you can put Serena's stats up against any other tennis legend and she'll come out looking pretty GOAT-like.
