Serena Williams capped off the 2014 Grand Slam season by winning the US Open for her 18th major title. To quote Serena after the match “It means a lot to me, who could ever imagine I’d be mentioned with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. I was just a kid from Compton with a dream and a racket.” And yet there she was on the court receiving an 18 carat gold bracelet in honour of her achievement from Chris and Martina.
So now what? Well already Serena has begun talking about Grand Slam Title #19, but knowing the competitor that she is, i believe she is taking aim at Steffi Graff’s record of 22 titles and planning her path to #23. If this is this case, i think there are a few things that should be considered.
2014 was hardly a banner year by Serena standards, especially since she usually judges her year by her results at Grand Slam tournaments. At the Australian Open Serena lost in the fourth round to Ana Ivanovic, although she did confess she was dealing with a back injury. In Paris, at Roland Garros, Serena was stunned in the second round by the up and coming Garbine Muguruza of Spain, and that was quickly followed by a third round loss to Alize Cornet of France on the grass courts of Wimbledon. I am not even going to delve into the doubles fiasco that was the Williams Sisters exit from Wimbledon.
In contrast, Serena’s results at the less significant tournaments were much more impressive. Serena won the title in Brisbane, prior to the Australian Open, defeating Victoria Azarenka and followed that with a win in Miami at the Sony Open with a victory over Li Na. Prior to Roland Garros Serena won the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
On the hard courts of the US Open Series Tournaments, Serena won the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford and the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati putting her out in front in the race to the US Open.
But, to pass Steffi Graff and win 23 Grand Slam titles, Serena will have to win 5 more Grand Slam tournaments. Each tournament requires 7 consecutive victories to claim the title which means Serena will have to win 35 more matches at the biggest tournaments. This means Serena will have to be focussed from the very start of the tournament even in those early round matches where she often has trouble staying in the moment.
Reports in the last week, have indicated that Serena has parted ways with her coach and sometime boyfriend, Patrick Mouratoglou. In my opinion if Serena is to take a run at the all time Grand Slam Title record, now is the time to put a champion in her camp. Serena does not need a coach to help her with her groundstrokes or her volleys and certainly her serve is the best in the women’s game, Serena needs a coach in her box who has the winning mentality. And there were two of the best standing with her at the US Open trophy presentation, Martina and Chris. What a perfect opportunity to glean a winning mentality from either of those two champions while at the same time promoting the ability of women to coach at the highest level of the game.
Although the record is within her reach, the draw of so many outside activities could be an issue. Her show at New York’s Fashion week made headlines, as did her absence at various media events following the championship win. If Serena is not enjoying the work required to win those championships the results will not be there. In fact one of the things that Marin Cilic the US Open Men’s champion said was that his new coach Goran Invanisevic put the fun back in the game. As i watched Serena warm up for her match in Stanford (see photos) i couldn’t help but notice how miserable she seemed. While other players tossed frisbees to warm up and appeared loose and relaxed, Serena appeared disinterested and bored.
My prediction: I expect Serena to keep competing and going after the record as long as injuries do not become an issue and she can keep her eye on the prize.
tennis info to a double fault 