NEW YORK: Serena Williams, riding an emotional rollercoaster as she adapts to juggling tennis and motherhood, seeks to end 2018 on a high with a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title at the US Open.
The US great counts six US Open victories among her 23 Slams and with one more would match Australian Margaret Court’s record for most major singles titles.
She could also join Court, Evonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters as the only mothers to win Grand Slam singles titles, but since an impressive run to the Wimbledon final — where she fell to Angelique Kerber — Williams has endured a lackluster buildup to the hardcourt showpiece in Flushing Meadows.
“I’m still at the very beginning, this is a long comeback,” she defiantly told reporters after a second-round loss to Petra Kvitova — winner of five titles this year — in the second round at Cincinnati.
“I just began, I just started,” Williams said. “I’m definitely at the very, very beginning.”
She had shrugged off an even bigger disappointment two weeks earlier — a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Johanna Konta in San Jose that was the most lopsided defeat of her career.
Williams later revealed she had learned shortly before that match that the man convicted of killing her sister Yetunde Price in 2003 had been released on parole, something she “couldn’t shake out of her mind”.
The Wimbledon champion has reached at least the quarters of each Slam this year and looks again like the player who won two majors in 2016 — including the US Open. (AFP)
