Aussie Open Day 3

Oooh boy, Serena is looking really good right now. Fit, mobile, and hitting the absolute bejesus out of the ball! Last year, she came out of nowhere to take the title; this year everyone knows she's coming, and it just doesn't seem to matter. She just finished dispatching her second round opponent, and she's into the third round. She's also, I'm sure, as enigmatic as ever.
I've always been very conflicted about rooting for Serena. There is no doubt she has a bigger game than every single woman on the tour, there's no one even close. Similarly, she's clearly got a Hall of Fame career under her belt, what with 8 Grand Slam titles thus far. However, it always seems like she's taken it for granted; she disappears for months at a time, she mails in big matches, she lets her conditioning fall apart. If she kept an untrammelled focus, she would be on a very short list for best of all time. It just seems like she doesn't care, her talent will always overwhelm the vast majority of opponents, thus she's content with popping her head in and out of the game. When you combine her apparent disregard of her gifts to her churlish and crass behavior anytime she loses (read: her loss to Henin at last year's US Open when she said Henin, ranked #1 in the world, got "lucky") and it can get pretty tough to get behind her.