Which Americans could contend?
NEW YORK » Andy Roddick was the last American man to win a Grand Slam title, all the way back at the 2003 U.S. Open. The last American woman other than Serena Williams to collect a major trophy? That was Venus Williams, at Wimbledon in 2008.
Roddick is retired; he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame last month. Serena Williams is on a sabbatical, expecting her first baby sometime in the next month or so. And Venus Williams? She is still going strong at age 37, able to adapt to living with an energysapping disease well enough to have reached two Grand Slam finals in 2017. She was runner-up to her younger sister at the Australian Open, then to Garbine Muguruza at Wimbledon .
“My hat is off to Venus — and I told her this in person years ago — that she figured out what was wrong with her and figured out how to deal with it. And to have that uncertainty of how you’re going to feel every day? But obviously she’s been managing it really well with her diet and her lifestyle. And the fact that she keeps coming back for more? I don’t think any of us thought that she could win another Slam four or five years ago,” said Martina Navratilova, an 18-time major winner whose last came at age 33.
“Great to see her still playing,” Navratilova said. “I know when she first came on the tour, she said — both sisters said — ‘There’s no way I’m going to play in my late 20s or 30s. No way!’ And here they are . ... And how lucky are we?”