Serena’s still a very scary proposition
‘PRETTY SCARY’ was how Britain’s Katie Boulter described her recent meeting with Serena Williams at the Hopman Cup when the USA took on GB in the mixed team competition.
Perhaps umpire Carlos Ramos may have felt the same during the tirade Williams launched at him in the final of her last tournament.
Ramos is back on Grand Slam duty over the coming fortnight and so is the greatest women’s player of all, starting as the No16 seed but the bookies’ favourite.
Her status as the player to beat is partly built on the reaction she induced from the likes of Boulter who are, naturally enough, slightly in awe of her presence.
Even though she is past her 37th birthday Williams can still project an aura like no other and again that is hardly surprising given that she is going for a 24th major title that would tie her with Margaret Court.
Boulter summed up what it was like being on the other side of the net when they met in Perth, where she acquitted herself honourably, taking her legendary opponent to a second-set tiebreak. ‘It was pretty scary actually,’ said Boulter. ‘She’s been my idol my entire life, someone I watched from stage one. To be on the other side of the court was an honour and a privilege to see such an amazing player who has accomplished so much, it was definitely an inspiration.’
Off the court Boulter found herself besides Williams at an official function, and she lived up to her expectations.
‘We had the New Year’s Eve gala there and I was actually sat next to her, she was answering some questions and stuff. She’s always lovely and a really sweet girl. I was lucky enough to get to chat to her a little bit.
‘She’s another champion, someone I aspire to be like. The more I can learn from her the better, like anyone I’m around, just like being around Roger Federer — all of them. Hopefully I can use that week and build on it for the rest of this year.’
So Williams’s reputation among her peers seems to have survived what happened at the US Open, where she had a meltdown during the final in the face of a brilliant challenge from the Japanese-American Naomi Osaka.
For the rest of the year the American kept a relatively low profile.
The most exposure she has received in this nascent season was when she took to the court with Federer for the first time, playing mixed doubles against him as part of the Hopman Cup format. More significant at this relatively serious preparatory event for the Australian Open was that she won all three of her singles matches in straight sets, beating Boulter, Greece’s Maria Sakkari and the talented young Swiss Belinda Bencic.
Prior to that she played a lucrative exhibition in Abu Dhabi against her sister Venus. The evidence so far is that Serena is ready to challenge for the title here, a quest that has an increasing urgency about it, given the advance of time.
It is two years since she won one of the sport’s biggest prizes, beating her sibling in the final at this same venue when it turned out that she was expecting her first child.
Williams is desperate to repeat the feat as a mother, although has not been talking about it in the build-up.
As 16th seed she is not obliged to do media duties and sat out the press conference parade yesterday, doubtless wishing to delay inevitable questions about what happened the last time she played a high-profile match.
The official line from the Williams camp is that she has moved on and even her opponent that day, Osaka, is keen to look forward.
In her amusingly quirky way Osaka was evasive when asked if she and her fellow contenders believed Serena was still the player to beat above all.
‘There’s a group of players that I think everyone thinks is difficult to play against,’ she said.
‘I don’t talk to people so I wouldn’t know what they’re thinking. If you want to hear the gossip I’m not the one, sorry.’
As is now the norm in women’s tennis — which has seen eight different players win the last eight Grand Slams — there is a plethora of potential champions.
One is 21-year-old Osaka, with her easy power having carried her from 68 to five in the world last season.
She could meet Williams in the semi-final but before that the American would probably have to beat her sister or top seed Simona Halep. In the first round she meets Germany’s Tatjana Maria, one of the few fellow mothers on the tour.