Serena Williams says that at 33 she
believes that time is still on her side for her to set a new all-time
record of Grand Slam singles title wins, AFP reports.
The American bagged her 19th title at the Australian Open in January.
That left her just three shy of the
Open-era record of 22 set by Germany’s Steffi Graf and five short of the
all-time record of Australian Margaret Court.
With Wimbledon and the US Open to follow
it could be that the French Open, played on clay, her least favourite
surface, could be the main obstacle in the way of her becoming just the
fourth women to complete the calendar Grand Slam.
But Williams said she had no intention of getting too far ahead of herself.
“That’s what’s so good about tennis,”
she said. “Unlike basketball and the football, you have four times a
year to get to the Grand Slams to try and win one. You have four
chances,” she said.
“That gives us a little bit more
opportunity to try to get there, even though the competition every year
is harder and harder and harder.
“But, yeah, with that, I feel like there
is still plenty of time. Honestly, if I get to 20, that would be great.
If I get past that, that would be great. I think 19 is pretty awesome,
too.
“You know, I never thought I would be at
19. I never thought I would make it this far. Every day I feel like I’m
living a dream. I don’t want to wake up from it because it’s been
really good.”
Apart from the likes of Maria Sharapova,
Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova, Williams also has in Paris to deal with
an elbow injury that caused her to pull out of the Rome tournament
earlier this month.
That followed a busier than usual start
to the year that saw her go on a 27-match unbeaten run before losing to
Kvitova in the Madrid semi-finals.
The injury was still causing her some pain, she said.
“Yeah, elbow it’s the same. I was
worried about it, but lately I have been really getting some really good
treatment that has been able to alleviate it and make the symptoms go
down substantially,” she said.
“So I feel a lot better going forward in the tournament and just getting through it.”
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