Oh no, here we go again. If it's the Australian Open, and egos are newly inflated like rejuvenated muscles following a strenuous session in the gym, then the time is right for a woman player (usually a Williams sister and invariably Serena) to maintain she could more than hold her own on the men's tour.

First of all let's get this whole thing into perspective. Serena was being more than a little playful when she made the claim that she once beat Andy Roddick in a youthful practice set when she was 12 and he a year younger.

A broad smile appeared on her face when she said perhaps that win implied she also had victories over Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer (on the grounds that Roddick has beaten both although he has a losing record against the Spaniard). Most certainly she was joking.

But there was an air of seriousness when the Williams sisters made a similar claim back in the 1990s that women players could beat the men.

Indeed it was on the outside courts at Melbourne Park that both of them in turn took on the lowly ranked and more than a little unconventional German Karsten Braasch.

Now the bespectacled Braasch was a man whose training regime centred around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple bottles of ice cold lager. He was also giving both Serena and Venus the best part of a decade and a half in age but still he won both encounters with ease.

Roddick is a far more clean living individual and although he struggles to make an impression on the likes of Nadal, Federer and Andy Murray, he still hits his serves and forehands with the velocity of an Air-to-Air Stinger missile. The power he packs would be far too strong for Serena and the same could well be said for the majority of the men's top 100.

A few years ago Richard Williams, the sisters' often outspoken father, got himself into a slanging match with none other than John McEnroe on a similar subject. Thereafter various challenges were thrown down and a speculative promoter got involved seeing the opportunity to make more than a buck or two.

The whole thing ended litigiously and those involved leant a lesson. So let's just dismiss this as another piece of fun and move on to the real issues of the Australian Open.