MY ACCOUNT
Serena Williams will go out with “full force” when she begins her final US Open campaign before retiring, according to Chris Evert.
Williams will have one last chance to match Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 grand slam singles titles at Flushing Meadows, as well as an opportunity to wave goodbye to her adoring fans on home soil.
While a challenge for the trophy looks highly improbable for Williams this time around, fellow six-time US Open winner Evert suspects the 40-year-old will take some shifting from the draw.
According to Evert, “the edge is off” when it comes to Williams and her remaining tennis goals, meaning she has reconciled herself to the likelihood of finishing her career with 23 singles majors.
Williams has revealed family matters and business interests were key to her decision to “evolve away” from the sport, and with her on-court returns diminishing, now seems the time to head in that direction.
Yet Evert can see Williams, who faces Danka Kovinic in round one in New York, giving a good account of herself during her US Open swansong.
“Serena isn’t coming out to play her last match; she’s coming out with full force,” Evert said on ESPN.
“The way she’s been practising this week, she’s here to compete, she’s here to win, and I don’t even think she’s thinking about retirement at this stage.”
Williams holds a 106-14 win-loss record in singles at the US Open. Her match wins tally at Flushing Meadows is the highest by any woman at the competition in the Open Era, and only Martina Navratilova has more at a single slam, achieving an astonishing 120 victories at Wimbledon.
Williams and Evert lead the way in women’s US Open titles in the professional era (since 1968), and regardless of final grand slam tallies, there will always be debate over who ranks as the greatest player of all time.
Williams certainly has a strong case, yet Navratilova (1,442), Evert (1,309) and Steffi Graf (900) all won more WTA-level matches than Williams (856), who often played a limited schedule.
Court has the most grand slam titles on the women’s all-time list, with a remarkable haul of 64 when women’s doubles and mixed doubles are included. Navratilova is next with 59, before Williams and Billie Jean King sit joint third with 39 majors apiece.
Scheduling self-preservation has allowed Williams to play on for so long, and John McEnroe has raised the question of what might happen if his fellow American surprises herself by clinching a seventh Flushing Meadows triumph.
“If she did happen to win this, don’t you think it’d be tempting to go and break the record?” McEnroe asked.
Four-time US Open singles champion McEnroe added: “I think she’s accepting, as much as Serena Williams can, that she’s not going to win this.
“Maybe deep down she’s found some sort of belief that maybe somehow, if she gets the right set of situations going, she can make a real run.”
More realistic, in McEnroe’s mind, is the prospect of Williams and sister Venus having a deep run in the doubles after they were handed a wildcard.
As a partnership, the siblings have won 14 grand slam doubles titles, never losing in a final at the majors.
“The two of them in doubles, where they’re covering half the court and they’re still able to do their thing, that would be a hell of a way to go out,” McEnroe said.
