IS THIS THE END FOR SERENA’S SLAM DREAM?
Williams blows chance to reach 24 titles
SERENA Williams had to wait nearly eight months for another Grand Slam opportunity, and now two of them have come along at once.
Yet you suspect that she has already missed her biggest, and perhaps final, chance to reach 24 Grand Slam titles.
After going down 6-1, 3-6, 3-6 to Victoria Azarenka in a highquality US Open semi-final, she wasted no time in declaring that she would travel to Europe for the rescheduled French Open, starting later this month.
‘I feel like other times I’ve been close and I could have done better. Today I felt like I gave a lot,’ she concluded. ‘I’m definitely going to Paris.’
The great American will turn 39 the day before the tournament starts. It will be a further reminder the clock is ticking closer to midnight on her hopes of matching Margaret Court’s tally of major titles.
Williams had a lot going for her this fortnight, but was stopped by a stirring performance from Azarenka, who will now meet 2018 winner Naomi Osaka in today’s final.
Roland Garros will be far more difficult for her to win, especially given all the things in her favour in New York.
The most obvious of these was the absence of six of the top 10 women, but there were others, including having the new Flushing Meadows Laykold surface laid on a court near her Florida home during lockdown.
Her scheduling during the tournament was distinctly generous. All of her six matches were played in Arthur Ashe Stadium and five of those were in daytime sessions, including being given the earlier slot for her quarter-final.
As one of the eight players paying substantially extra for renting private accommodation, she was even allowed more passes for her entourage to watch her matches than those staying at the official hotel. Provided they were in the Covidsecure bubble they could exceed the limit of three, the USTA confirmed to Sportsmail. The French are insisting that all players must stay in the official hotels in Paris, including someone like Williams who owns her own apartment in the city.
The clay-court Grand Slam is, in any event, somewhere she has not gone beyond the fourth round on her last two visits. Barring late withdrawals, the overall entry is stronger than it has been this fortnight.
Extraordinary athlete though she is, the American paid a price for her previous three matches going the full distance. Against Azarenka she jarred an achilles tendon in the second game of the deciding set, coinciding with having been pulled back from 40-0 to deuce. Her defiant opponent’s concentration survived the ensuing hiatus.
If this proves to have been the last one that got away when she had a serious chance, Williams can rest assured that it does not damage her claim to be the greatest. The depleted fields Court sometimes faced in the Sixties is the context required. She now leaves the stage to Azarenka, who has also been staying privately, like Osaka, who beat Jennifer Brady 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.
Despite the weakened field, it is a final befitting a Grand Slam, featuring two players who have been world No1. It also comes freighted with extra significance for both players due to outside factors. Osaka has become an articulate spokesperson on social matters in the past few months, expressing her views on issues relating to the Black Lives Matter movement. Although having been largely based in the US from the age of 15, Azarenka is among the most famous sportspeople from Belarus, which has been going through such upheavals. With family still there, she has resisted discussing the situation in any meaningful way.
She will attempt to become only the fourth mother to win a major in the post-1968 Open era, joining Court, Evonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters.
Beating Williams for the first time in 11 attempts at a Grand Slam, with that injection of confidence, will have been the perfect way to prepare.