Serena Williams defeated Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 7-5 at Wimbledon 2010

One thin you have to admire about Serena Williams is that she is all business.  She has her antics and she can do some distracting things but what you see is what you get and like her or not, Serena Williams gives 100 percent every time she puts a foot on a tennis court.

It is the way she was brought up.  It is the way she was taught to compete and the way she was taught to win.  Her success has added polish to her delivery, but Serena Williams is a champion and until someone proves otherwise, Ms. Williams is quite simply the best female player in the world, a notch above everyone else.

On Saturday, the game’s greatest finisher polished off a sporty 5’ 1” challenger, Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 7-5.  Williams had an impressive 19 aces and 38 winners against just nine errors.

Cibulkova showed her class and the size of her competitive heart in a hard fought, evenly contested second set.  After being embarrassed in the first set, Cibulkova clawed her way back into the match and won over quite a few new fans along the way.

In contrast, two of the game’s embarrassments, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova played on the hollowed grounds of the All England Club.  Azarenka, the loudest of the game’s disgraceful grunters, thankfully fell in straight sets to unheralded Czech, Petra Kvitova, 7-5, 6-0.  Apparently, the once highly touted powerhouse ran out of “grunt inspiration” in the second set.

Unfortunately, Sharapova defeated a very game Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5, 6-3.  By the end of the match, announcers John McEnroe and Mary Jo Fernandez had to comment on Sharapova’s ridiculously offensive and distracting noise level. Fernandez reported that Jalena Jankovic said that “you practice with these players or next to them and you never hear a word.  For some reason when they step on the court, it’s like they are giving birth.”

McEnroe mentioned that during the 11 hours of the Isner-Mahut epic battle, not one birthing grunt was to be heard. The real question is do the Grand Slam tournaments need this kind of ridiculous conduct.

Is this the way we want our children to behave on the court?  If this is the only way Azarenka and Sharapova can play?  If so, perhaps they should consider exotic dancing?

As Fernandez said, “this behavior definitely has cost Sharapova fan support.”  Personally, it is good reason to hope that Williams thoroughly dismisses the last remaining grunter.

In other real tennis matches, third seeded lady, Dane Caroline Wozniacki, continued her impressive play with a solid performance against Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-4.  Wozniacki has been working on her serve and the results have improved her chances.

Seventh seed, Agnieszka Radwanska looks like a real threat with another good win over Italian Sara Errani 6-3, 6-1.  Meanwhile the hard-hitting ninth seed, Li Na cruised past Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-3.

Kaia Kanepi, a qualifier, continued her unlikely run by defeating 31^st seed Rumanian Alexandra Dulgheru 6-1, 6-2.  In the first round, Kanepi upset one of the tournament favorites, Samantha Stosur.