This has been a good year, not a banner year, for Serena Williams.
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Although he then won a record 30th Masters trophy in Toronto, a shock first-round defeat at the Olympics to Juan Martin del Potro and a withdrawal from Cincinnati with a wrist injury suggested all is not well with the 2011 and 2015 US Open victor. Then she got bounced in the semifinals by Roberta Vinci, a loss that is still inexplicable.
She can break Graf’s record with a seventh US Open triumph, and continue her march toward Australian Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24 Grand Slam titles.
Key Statistic I: 22 – Number of Grand Slam singles titles won by Williams, sharing the professional-era record with Steffi Graf.
Things haven’t been rosy since.
Her only competition since winning Wimbledon was at the Rio Olympics where she lost in the third round to Elina Svitolina.
The American star, who is also chasing a record seventh crown in NY, has been struggling with a right shoulder injury which contributed to an early loss at the Olympics and forced a withdrawal from last week’s Cincinnati tournament.
Williams said her shoulder was starting to feel better, but she was trying to balance the need for rest with the need to practice.
Olympic gold medallist and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray of Britain, who clinched his first-ever Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2012, will face the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol.
“And Nadal on clay, at a French Open, you’re not going to convince me he’s done yet the way he was playing leading up (before withdrawing injured) – I thought he was getting close to what he was before on the clay. That’s all I can do now”.
Kei Nishikori, who became Asia s first men s Grand Slam finalist in NY in 2014, when he fell to Marin Cilic in the final, also advanced, downing German Benjamin Becker 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Shriver believes the support of a home crowd can drive Williams, who plays Ekaterina Makarova in the first round on Monday. She knows how to play big matches on big courts.
She is 12 years younger than Williams. “I don’t think Murray would go in as a favourite on that surface against Nadal in a best-of-five”.
You should never bet against Williams, not until she has well and truly called it a career. She could find fifth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep waiting in the quarters and elder sister Venus, the sixth seed, in the semis.
After an early defeat at Wimbledon, Djokovic suffered his wrist injury before the Rio Olympics, where he was ousted in round one.
“The errors told the story today”, said Williams, whose aggressive game also produced 46 winners.
It wasn’t a physical problem that burdened Djokovic during his third-round Wimbledon loss to 41st-ranked Sam Querrey, he said. “Hopefully just every day I will keep going higher”, said the American. Williams is defending a 780 from her 2015 run.
Compatriot Laura Robson will join them in the main draw if she wins her final qualifier against Germany’s Tatjana Maria on Friday at about 20:30 BST.
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That day is a much more pleasant memory for Williams – a 6-1, 6-3 win that was part of a dominant run to the title.
