"Serena Williams forced a lot of players to up their game and adapt with the power she brought" - Jill Craybas

Former World No. 39 Jill Craybas recently expressed her views on Serena Williams' power-packed game and adaptability.

Craybas competed on the WTA tour from 1995 to 2013. The American's biggest career victory came against Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon in 2005. Although Craybas had lost two matches against Williams before that meeting at SW19, she can take pride in not having a lopsided record against the 23-time Major winner.

The former WTA pro recently appeared on the ATP Tennis Radio Podcast, where she dived deep into what made Serena Williams so special. The 49-year-old stated that while Williams' display of power on her serve and groundstrokes was admirable, her ability to adapt to different matchups was one of the keys to her dominance.

She also compared the former World No. 1's resilience with that of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

"I feel like I've seen it so often where all Federer, Nadal, Djokovic have been able to do that and a lot of times Serena as well," Jill Craybas said on great players' ability to adapt (9:30). "She is always in the mix because she has to adapt and come up and a way they can sometimes flip a switch and then all of a sudden just be like, 'not feeling comfortable' and all of a sudden being able to figure things out in a way where they come up with those wins.

"It's hard to pick one name because I think they all do it phenomenally well. As far as power, I mean definitely, on the women's side, Serena changed that completely."

Craybas added that Williams had prompted many players in the modern era to hit the ball harder because they couldn't handle the American's swashbuckling shots during rallies.

"I think she forced a lot of players to have to be able to up their game as far as being able to come with some more pace and being able to adapt with the power that she brought," she added (10:05).

"I would want probably Serena Williams' serve" - Jill Craybas

Serena Williams prepares to serve at the 2018 US Open.

During the interaction, Jill Craybas also showered rich praise on Serena Williams' serve — widely believed to be the best serve in the women's game in this century.

"I would probably want Serena's serve. Yeah, that would be one of the ones I want on the women's side," she said while discussing great serves on both the ATP and WTA tours (5:27).

Podcast presenter Chris Bowers also spared a word for the serves of Pete Sampras and John Inser during the discussion.

"The player who has the best male serve in recent years never got to a Grand Slam final and that was John Isner. For me, it was just beautiful stuff..." Bowers said (5:33). "Sampras did something which was unusual at the time and now everybody does, he put his ball toss in the same position every time so that it made the serve a lot harder to read as the returner."