And that’s faster than most men on the pro tour hit, too.
I’ve long thought the the very best women in women’s tennis could consistently beat the middle- and lower-ranked men if they were allowed to play together. And these women would probably only lose 60-40 to the top men. This offers some empirical support for that contention.
If you are in a TL;DR mood, the reason is that the very, very best female athletes are shunted away from other sports (baseball, etc.) that are not financially remunerative to them and into tennis. And there is far more egalitarianism in that sport so they receive equal training and opportunity.
In fact one of the reasons that I’ve always liked tennis because women are treated far less unequally there than in other sports. If you turn a TV on, you are as likely to see a women’s match as a men’s. That’s true of no other major sport.
The women’s game had until a few years ago been more cerebral and less about punishing ground attacks, but that is changing and I like it a little less than I used to for that reason.
However, if you want to see the very top female athletes in the world do cool shit you can’t do, tennis is the place to look. Funny how much of the “natural” gender disparity disappears when you treat everyone more equally, isn’t it?*
*I am not arguing that women are not on average a bit less strong. It is true that in many sports, top women will always be dominated by top men. There is a thing called “biology.” However, treating everyone as if they belong and caring about their achievements is always better to me than the alternative.