SERENA WILLIAMS has slammed sufficient forcible shots and shouted, screamed and shocked enough with her on-court behaviour to indelibly write her name into the history of the US Open. Yet today a sixth singles title would lodge her even more firmly among the game’s elite and take her collection of Grand Slam victories to 18, drawing her level with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
But Billie Jean King, in whose honour the tournament’s New York site has been named, believes this is only the prelude to arguably the most successful women’s tennis career of all time, adding that the only obstacle that may prevent Serena going on to better Steffi Graf’s all-time record of 22 major titles is Serena herself.
In the open era only Evert has won the US title six times; if Williams beats Caroline Wozniacki in today’s final, as form, history and common sense suggests she will, the tennis record books will need the first of what King and others predict to be several major rewrites.
“Serena is the one to beat and we all knew that before the event started,” says King, disregarding three shock Grand Slam exits for the world No 1 this year. In the fourth round of the Australian Open in January she was troubled by an injured back against Ana Ivanovic; in the French Open she suffered a second-round defeat to the young Spaniard Garbine Muguruza before, at Wimbledon, France’s Alize Cornet did the unexpected.
Advertisement
For the first time this year, Wiliams has been completely fit and focused at a major and has smashed her way through six rounds without the loss of a set in barely six and a half hours, three and a half hours less than Wozniacki, even though the 10th-seeded Dane has benefitted from two retirements along the way.
King adds: “I can imagine Serena going on to beat Steffi’s total. Why not? It’s up to her. It does not matter that she is already 32 years old. As long as she stays physically healthy, It’s simply down to Serena if she wants to pay the price. I played until I was 40 and she is a phenomenal athlete.”
Williams and Wozniacki have already contested two close encounters this summer. In Montreal a month ago the former world No 1 and 2009 US Open runner-up took an early lead before losing 2-6 6-2 6-4. A week later in Cincinnati the script was largely the same, the scoreline reading 4-6 7-5 7-5. The determining factor in both games was the Williams power, particularly on the serve.
“Serena gets a lot of free points on her serve and that’s a major factor,” says King. “Right now I would say the biggest weakness in women’s tennis is the serve. But I would say over the time I’ve been watching tennis, Serena, Pete Sampras and Pancho Gonzalez have had the three most beautiful serves technically.”
Williams has won 80% of her first service points in this tournament, which seems ominous even for an exemplary returner such as Wozniacki who, by virtue of her training for November’s New York Marathon, is lighter, more agile and able to withstand the brutal heat and humidity which saw her unfortunate semi-final opponent, China’s Peng Shuai, taken from court in a wheelchair after suffering severe cramp. Before this tournament Wozniacki had not contested the quarter-final stage of a Grand Slam event since losing at that stage to Kim Clijsters in the 2012 Australian Open. Ten major tournaments have passed since then. Only twice in that time did she reach the second week but her fourth-round win over Maria Sharapova emphasised her tenacity and determination, while the quarter-final destruction of Italy’s Sara Errani was brutal.
Advertisement
She knows the quality and strength of today’s opposition will be rather different. “Serena looks like she’s really firing,” said Wozniacki, who looks a far cry from the troubled figure who appeared at the French Open less than four months ago after Rory McIlroy called off the couple’s wedding. “She’s a great player and has won so many Grand Slams. When she’s on fire, she’s hard to beat. But I have had two tough matches against her in the past few weeks and it was really close. Hopefully for me it will be ‘third time’s the charm’.”
The memory of Serena stumbling around disorientated in the Wimbledon doubles before retiring and making a hasty exit from the All-England Club nine weeks ago is not easy to forget, but that seems consigned to be one of the many mysteries connected with one of the most talked-about families in tennis.
Williams has become the first player to qualify for the season-ending WTA finals in Singapore after winning in Stanford and Cincinnati. If she wins today she will receive a $4m prize, including a $1m bonus for being the most successful player in the build-up US Open series. King, for so long a campaigner for equal prize money, sees nothing wrong with such recompense and says: “Serena’s commitment to tennis has gone up and down over the years but right now she loves the game, and see what it’s producing.”
Billie Jean King will join Sir Elton John to stage Mylan Smash Hits at the Statoil Masters Tennis at London’s Royal Albert Hall on December 7. The charity event features John McEnroe, Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters. Tickets: www.statoilmasters tennis.com or 0207 070 4404