Serena eyes 23rd Slam title
Williams can make history if sore right shoulder lets her
Despite everything Serena Williams has won and done, her sense of self can fluctuate based on the outcome of a particular match.
It doesn't always seem to matter that she has a record-tying 22 Grand Slam singles titles heading into the U.S. Open, which begins Monday, with a retractable roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time.
It's not necessarily a big deal to her that she has spent the past 3
And there are times when Williams, 34, basically forgets that she transcends her sport and has become a cultural icon away from the tennis court.
Williams is devastated when she is dealt a setback, such as last year's “Did that really happen?!” loss to Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semifinals, ending a bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam in more than a quarter-century. Williams acknowledges that she measures herself constantly.
“Unfortunately, I definitely do, which I don't think is normal,” she said. “I definitely feel like when I lose, I don't feel as good about myself.
“But then I have to remind myself that ‘You are Serena Williams!' You know? Like, ‘Are you kidding me?'?” Williams continued, laughing and leaning forward. “And it's those moments that I have to just come off and be like: ‘Serena, do you know what you've done? Who you are? What you continue to do, not only in tennis, [but also] off the court? Like, you're awesome.' That really just shows the human side of me. I'm not a robot.”
Although the stakes are different from what they were at Flushing Meadows in 2015, Williams does have something significant to play for.
After equaling Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles in the professional era (which dates to 1968) by winning Wimbledon last month, Williams can break that tie by earning No. 23 in New York. Only Margaret Court has more major singles trophies, with 24, but more than half of that total came against amateur competition.
Slowed by a bothersome right shoulder, Williams lost in the third round of singles and first round of doubles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics — she was a 2012 gold medalist in both events — and then pulled out of a hard-court tuneup event in Ohio.
Williams is assured of remaining at No. 1 until the end of the U.S. Open, which will bring her streak to 186 weeks in a row, tying another mark held by Graf. Depending on what happens in the tournament, Williams could be overtaken in the rankings by No. 2 Angelique Kerber (who beat Williams in the Australian Open final in January), No. 3 Garbine Muguruza (who beat Williams in the French Open final in June) or No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska.
“It's definitely intriguing,” Roger Federer said about tracking the women vying for No. 1. “It's nice to see this race.”
Federer, who has won five of his men's record 17 Grand Slam titles in New York, will be sitting out the U.S. Open for the first time since 1999 as he takes the rest of the season off to let his left knee heal.
A year ago, Federer lost in the final to Novak Djokovic. In Federer's mind, the top-ranked Djokovic is the favorite this time, even though No. 2 Andy Murray's summer, which includes wins at Wimbledon and in the Olympics, has been “phenomenal.”
“Novak, the last two years really, has played amazing tennis,” Murray said. “His consistency — what I've done for the last four months, he's been doing for the whole year. So I need to try [to] keep that going, and the U.S. Open is always the next big goal.”
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
