Drama queen keen to complete ‘Serena Slam’

LONDON: Twelve months on from making the most bizarre of exits from Wimbledon, drama queen Serena Williams will be back at the All England Club next week eager to complete the “Serena Slam”.

As the holder of the US, Australian and French Open titles, the American is seven wins away from holding all four majors at the same time – a feat she last achieved as a 21year-old.

A dozen years later, the 33year-old is ready and primed to trample over anyone who dares to stand in the way of another clean sweep.

“I would never have expected at this time in my career to win three grand slams in a row. This for me is unbeliev- able,” the world No 1 said after winning her 20th major at Roland Garros.

“I’m really excited … I’ve got a Serena Slam and I’m close to another.”

To achieve that, however, she needs to avoid the kind of drama witnessed in her last appearance at Wimbledon or even at the French Open this month.

Twelve months ago a dizzy and disoriented Williams cut a sorry figure as she walked off the hallowed turf in tears after serving a whole game of double faults in a doubles match.

It was a case of déjà vu at this year’s French Open when a clearly out-of-sorts Williams again struggled to stay on her feet during her semi-final against Timea Bacsinszky.

While her desire to win at all costs allowed the American to keep alive her dreams of completing a non-calendar grand slam, tennis great Chris Evert believes Williams cannot afford such slips-ups at Wimbledon, where the slick surface can be unforgiving.

“When she is at her best she is better than anybody else. But at the same time we’ve seen some hiccups and we’ve seen some drama, like at the French Open,” Evert told a teleconference organised by ESPN.

“She can’t afford to have any more drama like at the French Open. It wouldn’t surprise me if she won. At the same time it wouldn’t surprise me either if she had a bad loss.”

Two of those bad losses came at Wimbledon over the past two years – to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round in 2013 and Alize Cornet in the third round 12 months later.

“At Wimbledon the monkey is on my back because I have not done well there in a couple of years. Considering how well I have done there for so many years, I now consistently do terribly there so that is the one I really want to do well in,” said Williams, who captured the last of her five Wimbledon titles in 2012.

With only Steffi Graf (22) and Margaret Court (24) ahead of her in the list of all-time slam winners, Williams knows that she has only limited time left to climb on top of that list.

“She’s chasing history in terms of her grand slam titles. She’s going for a Grand Slam, which is obviously so rare,” said John McEnroe. “That should be significant motivation.”

With so much focus on Williams, it is easy to forget that 127 of the world’s fittest women athletes will be out to try to steal the spotlight from the American.

Chief among them will be holder Petra Kvitova and fivetime grand slam champion Maria Sharapova.

With all of the main contenders opting not to play competitively during the extended three-week build-up to the grasscourt major, it will be battle on when Wimbledon’s gates open on Monday. – Reuters

THERE’s nothing like the smell of money to raise the games of existing top athletes and to breed a whole crop of new ones.

Internet entrepreneur Larry Ellison, who recently bought Indian Wells tournament from South Africa’s former Davis Cup player Ray Moore, announced recently that he was going to double competitors’ prize money, for what is already considered the Rolls-Royce of the Masters tournaments.

Immediately the All England Lawn Tennis Club responded, saying they were going to double prize money for the first round of Wimbledon this year.

Out of sheer curiosity, I looked up how much the top 30 women professionals have collectively earned to date and almost choked on my croissant, discovering that it’s in excess of $164 million (about R2 billion).

This explains the evergrowing line-up of combatant eastern Europeans climbing over each other to get onto the circuit and also the sudden spate of Americans and Australians clambering on board.

What it doesn’t explain is why South African tennis is flying the skull and crossbones while former Springboks celebrate the anniversary of a Rugby World Cup victory.

Kevin Anderson is the only South African to make it to a Queen’s Club final, which is something to be proud of, one would imagine.

Yet, as much as his huge serve and solid ground-strokes have stood him in good stead, the fact that he lives in America and doesn’t play Davis Cup for his country makes him a less believable role model.

Moreover, if local television and radio stations broadcast cricket, rugby and golf shows ad nauseam, yet turn up their noses at the suggestion of a “Super Tennis Show” during the Grand Slam tournaments, how is the message going to get out there that some of the bestknown names in world sport are tennis players – and that some of them are South Africans – and that this is a game worth pursuing, if only for the money.

I had lunch this week with Dutch former Wimbledon doubles champion Tom Okker. He was fresh off a BBC fourway telephone interview with Cliff Drysdale and Donald Dell for this year’s Wimbledon commemoration of Arthur Ashe, who wasn’t a great fan of South Africa when Dell escorted him out here in the 1970s.

Okker reminded me that I had beaten Ashe in the US Clay Court Nationals and Ashe had subsequently beaten him, in the US Open semi-finals. But again, both Ashe and Drysdale are names that should spur South