Serena shoulders burden of history at Flushing Meadows
HIGH STAKES World No 1 faces injury trouble, rival Kerber in her attempt to break Graf’s record
Serena Williams once again arrives at Flushing Meadows poised to rewrite the tennis record books — if her own troublesome right shoulder and increasingly emboldened rivals allow. The 34-year-old US superstar matched Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles with her triumph at Wimbledon in July. With a seventh US Open triumph she can break Graf ’s record, and continue her march toward Australian Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24 Grand Slam titles.
She could also break Graf’s record of 186 consecutive weeks atop the world rankings, and surpass Chris Evert for most US Open singles titles won in the Open Era.
But after seeing a frustrating year go by between her 21st Grand Slam win and No. 22, Williams said she’d learned to let history take care of itself. “I learned not to get involved in those debates and conversations,” Williams said after her straight-sets victory over Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final. “I definitely had some sleepless nights ... I’ve just felt a lot of pressure.” Williams’s bid to retain her Olympic singles title ended in Rio de Janeiro this month when she was sent crashing out of the third round by Elina Svitolina.
Williams was clearly hindered by the shoulder injury that had forced her out of the Montreal WTA tournament as she served up eight double faults and 37 unforced errors in the straight-sets defeat.
Since then she has withdrawn from her WTA title defence in Cincinnati, saying the inflammation in her shoulder “continues to be a challenge”. If Williams isn’t at full strength, Kerber is just one of the players poised to pounce.
Kerber, 28, boasts a title at Stuttgart, an Olympic silver medal and finals appearances at Brisbane in January and this month in Cincinnati -- where she missed her first chance to supplant Williams atop the rankings. DJOKOVIC-NADAL POTENTIAL SEMIFINAL Defending champion Novak Djokovic and fellow twotime winner Rafael Nadal were drawn for a potential semi-final clash on Friday. Djokovic, the top seed who has been nursing a wrist injury since a shock first round loss at the Olympics, begins his campaign against bigserving Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.