2000s: Top Female Tennis Player - Serena

The best by a healthy margin. This decade she won 10 major singles titles -- including, like Federer each of the four -- and four straight at one point. And she played as well in 2009 as she did in 1999, the year she first broke through. Bonus points for her excellence in doubles, her success at the Olympics and her unrivaled competitive fire. The critics -- the "Hatorade drinkers," as she might put it -- will point to her selective scheduling, mysterious absences and penchant for drama. But maybe that helped inform her success.

by: Jon Wertheim (Sports Illustrated.com)