Serena aiming to end long Slam record quest wait

SERENA Williams is ominously back to winning ways as she looks to finally complete her long quest for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

The American has been on the cusp of history since 2017, when she won her 23rd Major trophy in Melbourne, but after returning from giving birth has suffered straightsets defeats in four Slam finals.

The signs are good for t he 38year-old Williams, who broke a t hree-year tit le drought at last week’s Auck land Classic – a result that will not have gone unnoticed by her younger riva ls.

Australia’s world number one Ashleigh Barty and defending champion Naomi Osaka are among her genuine challengers, but pressure and expectation will also pose problems for Williams as she pursues the 24 Grand Slam titles won by the Australian Margaret Court between 1960 and 1973.

“That was really important for me and I just want to build on it,” Williams, now ranked ninth in the world, said after triumphing in Auckland on Sunday.

The former number one, who celebrated on court with daughter Olympia, donated her US$43,000 winner’s cheque to victims of the Australian bushfires.

Practice and qualifying have been disrupted in Melbourne this week because of toxic air pollution from the deadly fires, but organisers are confident the tournament will proceed as planned.

Williams (pictured, AFP) has now won 73 WTA titles over four decades, and although she is scaling back the number of tournaments she plays, there is no indication she plans to retire imminently.

Williams’s latest Grand Slam final heartbreak came at the US Open, where she was stunned by Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu.

Williams – the highest-paid female athlete in the world orld last year with earnings close to o US$30 million, according to Forbes bes – afterwards played down her bid for Court’s record.

“I’m not necessarily sarily chasing a record,” she said. d.

“I’m just trying ng Grand Slams.”

At least she will ll not encounter the 19-yearold Andreescu, who is out of the Australian Open with a knee injury.

Pressure on Barty ty

to win

Of the challengers ers to Williams, Barty will also have to deal with great expectations from m the Melbourne crowd.

The 23-year-old ld

Australian, who once on took time off tennis to play professional c cricket, won her maiden Major at Roland Ga Garros last year. But Barty has had a patc patchy start to the year a after losing her season opener last week, going down in two se sets in Brisbane to Am American qualifier Jennif Jennifer Brady.

She dismissed afterwar terwards the hype in Australia surrounding her.

“It does doesn’t change the way that I practise, it doesn’t change the way that m my team and I prepa prepare, it doesn’t chang change me as a person,” Bart Barty said.

Japan’s Osaka arrives for her title defence accompanied by her fourth coach in less than a year, Belgian Wim Fissette.

The 22-year-old squandered match point in losing to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the semi-finals in Brisbane on Saturday.

The 27-year-old Pliskova goes into Melbourne under the radar but the world number two beat American Madison Keys in the final to close the gap on Barty at the top of the rankings.

However, she is yet to win a Grand Slam and her best appearance in a Major was back in 2016, when she lost the US Open final to Germany’s Angelique Kerber.

There will be added interest in Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, the former world number one who finally broke her long Grand Slam duck in Melbourne two years ago, and who will retire after the tournament at the age of 29.