Serena seeks to cap comeback year with Slam
NEWYORK: Serena Williams, riding an emotional rollercoaster as she adapts to juggling tennis and motherhood, seeks to end 2018 on a high with a recordequalling 24th Grand Slam title at the US Open.
The US great counts six US Open victories among her 23 Slams and with one more would match Australian Margaret Court’s record for most major singles titles.
She could also join Court, Evonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters as the only mothers to win Grand Slam singles titles, but since an impressive run to the Wimbledon final -- where she fell to Angelique Kerber -- Williams has endured a lacklustre buildup to the hardcourt showpiece in Flushing Meadows.
“I’m still at the very beginning, this is a long comeback,” she said after a second-round loss to Petra Kvitova -- winner of five titles this year -- in Cincinnati.
She had shrugged off an even bigger disappointment two weeks earlier -- a 6-1, 6-0 loss to
Johanna Konta in
San Jose that was the most lopsided defeat of her career. Williams later revealed she had learned shortly before that match that the man convicted of killing her sister Yetunde Price in 2003 had been released on parole, something she “couldn’t shake out of her mind”.
It was another instance of personal matters intruding on the tennis court in a way they never have before, with Williams opening up about her struggles with post-partum emotions since the birth of daughter Olympia last September, and wrestled with feelings of inadequacy that many new mothers experience. “I have been through a lot of stuff in my life, but I have never been through this,” Williams said.
And then there’s her game, worryingly inconsistent in six tournaments so far this year -including the French Open where she withdrew before the fourth round with a pectoral injury.
“Basically, my whole game needs to improve,” Williams said, although she wasn’t stepping up the pressure on herself in her last chance to avoid her first season since 2011 without a Grand Slam singles title.
“I feel like I have to be nice to myself,” Williams said.
“I have to just be happy, continue to work hard. I’ve been working incredibly hard. I feel like it will for sure pay off eventually.”
Awarded the 17th seeding, nine spots above her world ranking, Williams nevertheless faces a tough early road with a potential third-round clash with her sister Venus and a possible fourthround match against world number one and top seed Simona Halep, who won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this year.
He has been through (a lot) to get into this position again. He leaves early in every tournament. It’s not normal for a player like him.
DEL POTRO, 2009 US Open winner