Serena chasing three-peat
U.S. Open win would salvage season, plus men’s outlook.
Serena Williams has a solid grip on the No. 1 ranking. She has a WTA-tour leading five titles. She is the favorite for a three-peat at the U.S. Open, something that hasn’t been done since the mid-1970s.
Her 2014 season is teetering on disaster.
“Even if she wins the U.S. Open it will be a bad season — for her,” said her coach, Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou. “If she doesn’t win? It’s going to be a very, very bad season for sure.”
Bad — for her — however, is better than very, very bad, and it appears that Williams is hitting her stride just in time to make another run at Flushing Meadows.
With tuneup titles at Stanford and Cincinnati this month, including her best set-and-a-half this year against Ana Ivanovic in the Western & Southern Open final eight days ago, Williams is looking like her usual dominating self. “This is definitely a level that could take me to the title,” she said.
Williams, Mouratoglou and her team say they are viewing the remaining major not as a season-saver but as chance to finish strong and end the year at No. 1.
But the doom and gloom is primarily because Williams, who turns 33 on Sept. 26, is experiencing the most sustained period of excellence in her long career with 79 weeks at No. 1, the longest since Martina Hingis’ 80 weeks in 1997-98. But she hasn’t won a major since her second consecutive U.S. Open a year ago.
Stuck at 17 Grand Slam titles, she failed to advance past the fourth round at this year’s Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.
If Williams leaves New York without a title, it would mark the first time since 2001 that she has entered all four majors without winning at least one.
“It would have been nice in Australia,” she said of equaling Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on the all-time leaderboard with 18 Grand Slam trophies. “It would have been nice in France. It would have been nice at Wimbledon. Now I’m kind of over it.”
Williams ransacked the tour in 2013, claiming career highs in wins (78-4) and titles (11), including her 16th and 17th majors at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open. This year has not been last year.
Williams told USA TODAY Sports last month that she entered 2014 mentally and physically worn out. “Honestly, at the beginning of the season I was really exhausted,” she said.
An injury at the Australian Open followed, and though Williams won a record seventh title at Miami, she wasn’t herself.
“There is not one thing that was completely off and explains everything,” Mouratoglou said.
“I haven’t been enjoying it as much,” she said of the first six months of the year. “I put too much pressure on myself to like win, win, win, win, win. I need to step out of that and just look at the big picture.”
The big picture also includes this: Williams loves New York, where she won her first major in 1999 at 17 years old. She hasn’t lost on U.S. hardcourts (22-0) in more than a year. She seems to have put her third-round loss and bizarre exit at Wimbledon behind her, going 12-1 since.
Most agree that if Williams plays to her ability, the outcome is on her racket. But her opponents sense an opening.
“There is a little bit of vulnerability there,” said Australian Samantha Stosur, who beat Williams in the 2011 U.S. Open final and lost a close 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (9-7) match at this month’s Western & Southern Open.
Evert, the last player to win three or more consecutive U.S. Open titles (1975-78), said Wil-
“If she brings momentum into the U.S. Open, we all know confidence is the name of the game for her.” Chris Evert
liams is no shoo-in to win despite her impressive 6-4, 6-1 victory against ninth-ranked Ivanovic.
“If they raise their level, they can beat her on an off day,” Evert said of title threats such as French Open champion Maria Sharapova of Russia and No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania.
No wonder that Williams’ mind already is drifting toward 2015.
“It’s going to be kind of fun to go to a tournament and not be defending champion,” she said half-jokingly.
She has one more chance to make a mediocre season decent.
“I’m confident,” Williams said. “I love a challenge. I love being the underdog, so to say.”
No one is likely to call her that. Her overdog status, however, is another question.