Serena, Tiger exist in same stratosphere
THE numbers are similar — even if the reverence for their dominance isn’t. Tiger Woods is known as the perhaps most dominant player to play any sport. Serena Williams? She gets her due, but it’s not as universal as that given to Woods, with his 14 golf major championships and 79 career victories, and that’s a bit of a shame considering Williams’ dominant run has been one of more sustained excellence than Woods — or anyone else in any sport for that matter.
When Williams, who has 72 career singles titles, played Anastasija Sevastova in the first of the two U.S. Open semifinal matches Thursday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, she was two wins away from capturing her 24th Grand Slam title to tie Margaret Court’s all-time record. That doesn’t include the 23 career doubles titles she’s won, including 14 in Grand Slams.
And for the 36-year-old Williams — who gave birth to her first child, Alexis Olympia, a year ago — this current run of hers is about winning a first Grand Slam title as a mother.
Williams’ pursuit of that goal after taking about a year away from the game during her pregnancy and childbirth is not lost on Woods, who has returned this year from four surgeries on his back that shaved about two years off of his career.
“We’ve talked at length,’’ Woods said recently. “We’re very close friends. I think we both have had some nice comebacks this year.’’
Woods, playing in the BMW Championship outside of Philadelphia this week, opened the tournament with an 8-under 62 on Thursday to take a share of the firstround tournament lead with Rory McIlroy. If he can sustain that form, Woods might win his first tournament since 2013, ending a five-year winless run. He hasn’t won a major championship since 2008.
Williams, since winning her first Grand Slam title in 1999 (the first of her six U.S. Open titles), has never gone longer than three years without winning another slam — and that was the span from ’ 99 to 2002 between her first and second. Since then, Williams has gone two years without a slam just twice (2003-2005 and 2010-12).
Her sustained excellence while dominating her sport is unparalleled by anyone in any sport.
The most difficult match Williams has played in this U.S. Open — not based on the final score but mentally — was her third-round encounter against her older sister, Venus. The 6-2, 6-2 outcome didn’t tell the full story about what that match took out of her emotionally.
“It’s never easy for them to play against one another,’’ Woods said of Serena and Venus. “They root for each other so hard and they love each other so much. When they have to play it’s not easy on either one of them … and someone has to move on.’’
Not surprisingly, perhaps with her win over Venus still lingering in her mind, Williams struggled for a spell in her fourth-round match against Kaia Kanepi (6-0, 4-6, 6-2) and came out sluggish early in her 6-4, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Karolina Pliskova before finding her game and moving on.
That brought her to Thursday night against the Latvian Sevastova, an opponent she had never faced.
Williams entered that match with an astounding 30-5 record in Grand Slam semifinal matches and an overall 94-11 career U.S. Open record.
Williams, who has endured her share of Grand Slam disappointments, most recently losing to Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final, was cautious about looking ahead.
“I’d been a couple steps away at the last Grand Slam, so I’m definitely not ahead of myself,” Williams said before the Sevastova match. “I don’t look that far ahead.’’
Williams, who was attempting to reach her ninth U.S. Open final and first since winning her last title in Flushing Meadows in 2014, lost her previous two semifinals — in 2015 against Roberta Vinci and in 2016 against Pliskova.
This, along with that mission she’s on to win as a mother for the first time, seems to have her as hungry as ever.
“I don’t have 10 more years … at least, I don’t think so,” she said.
After a pause, she added with smile: “I said that 10 years ago.”
Regardless of Williams’ age, it’s never a smart wager to bet against her.