Serena Williams has won major No. 21 at Wimbledon 2015, and will be known as Serena “Slam” from now on. Serena Williams, though, is a bit different. But she struck a 10th ace for 30-40 and one more for deuce.
Advertisement
“I’ve been trying to win four in a row for 12 years, and it hasn’t happened”.
Maybe the most telling statistic about Williams’ ability to turn it up a notch when the spotlight is brightest is this: Her record in major semifinals and finals is 47-7.
“Contemporary”, she said, and smiled, without opening the door too broadly.
Williams said she was still letting the moment settle in.
When someone is one of the few people in a sport historically dominated by caucasians, foolish comments nearly always follow. At 33 years and 289 days, Williams is now in her own exclusive club as the oldest player in the professional era to clinch a grand slam title, surpassing Martina Navratilova by 26 days. “It’s been working”.
In fact, the secret to her current stranglehold on the women’s game, might just be that she has been there, done it and bought the T-shirt.
Not that anyone is really on her heels either. A pulmonary embolism can be fatal, and it requires a lengthy recovery. I didn’t even know it was over because she was fighting so hard at the end.
It wasn’t a given that she’d recover. “You’ll be holding one of these (trophies) soon”. Instead, Williams came through as the holder of all four majors for the first time since she had the honour in 2003, putting her in sight of Steffi Graf’s 22 majors and Margaret Court’s 24. The tall, graceful Spaniard immediately demonstrated that she had acclimatised to English grass with the easy facility of her compatriots Juan Mata, Santi Cazorla and David Silva. Muguruza double-faulted for the second time; Williams got the benefit of a kind net cord; Muguruza hit long, then just wide – and the deed was done. Her 12th, at 121 miles an hour, delivered her championship point, but Muguruza saved, advancing to the net to land a forehand in the deuce corner. Each season, Williams has faced women who played a career of junior tennis and a full slate of tournaments. Heather Watson gave her a fright in the third round and Victoria Azarenka stretched her to the limit in the quarter-finals. “It would be really good to have an opportunity”. “I mean, I do have some aches and pains, but overall physically, I feel like I’m better”.
“Super-random, don’t ask me why, but I like the words, that’s why – if you break down the words, they’re pretty cool”.
There is no question that she can make it there, at the U.S. Open, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, because in a tennis career that has carried on for 17 years, she has made it everywhere.
“At any time fear and doubt can stop me too”.
“It’s easy to say, ‘but Serena’s better than everyone, so this is normal.’ This is not normal at all”, Mouratoglou said.
The six-time US Open victor acknowledged the scrutiny will be even more intense at Flushing Meadows, but once again she will try to focus on each match rather than the legacy-defining success at her fingertips. “It’s just overcoming those feelings and being the best that I can on that day”. Finally, she just told herself to relax.
Advertisement
“I don’t have anything to lose”, she reiterated. I’m really nice right now, but sooner or later it’s going to [be] cut out, because I can’t think about that.
