Serena Williams’ latest landmark achievement — an eighth Miami hardcourt crown — sends the US superstar into the claycourt season surrounded by talk of an even greater feat — the calendar Grand Slam.
At 33, the world number one is playing as well as ever. In fact, she says she has a greater understanding of the game now, making her better able to use her astonishing power and array of shots to good effect.
“I actually think that I read the game better,” Williams says. “Like when I’m playing an opponent, after three games I’m like, ‘OK, now I know what you’re going to do … or when the coach comes out I really key in on what they change their games to.
“I don’t think I did that before. I think that’s just experience and age.”
Williams is 18-0 in 2015, a perfect run that included her 19th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
Although age doesn’t seem to be dimming her physical abilities, injuries remain a potential stumbling block — witness the sore knee that forced her to withdraw from the WTA premier level tournament at Indian Wells a fortnight before Miami.
Only three women have won all four major titles in one year — Maureen Connolly Brinker in 1953, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988.
She and coach Patrick Mouratoglou have acknowledged that her main career focus now is to add to her cache of Grand Slam titles — with Margaret Court’s record of 24 perhaps within her grasp.
Williams has won four Grand Slam titles in a row — Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2002 followed by the Australian Open in 2003.
She has a healthy respect for the difficulty of winning all four in one year.
“Obviously, anyone that wins the Australian Open wants to win a Grand Slam,” she said after dismantling Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-0 in the Miami final on Saturday.
“I’ve won the Australian Open six times, and I have not done that yet. I’m not saying this is the year or not the year. Who knows?”
Williams, in fact, has never managed to add the second major — the French Open — to an Australian Open title.
The last woman to achieve the Australian-French double was Jennifer Capriati in 2001.
“I just think that sometimes the tournament’s hard or you just fall and you fall at the wrong time,” Williams said. “That’s just what happens.”
But she is still hungry for the challenge.
“I think in clay courts obviously you have longer matches, consistently have longer matches, so I’ve got to be ready for that. I’m ready for it.”