MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams was utterly
unaware that a victory on Saturday night would put her back at No. 1. Her
coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, did all he could to keep her in the dark.
But there was no hiding the other statistical stakes
as Williams walked back into Rod Laver Arena, headphones around her neck and
game-face in place, to play her older sister Venus Williams in the Australian
Open final.
The tennis circuit can be an echo chamber where the
same questions and themes reverberate from week to week as the locations
change, but the protagonists do not.
So even if Serena Williams refused to entertain
questions during the tournament about the possibility of winning her 23rd Grand
Slam singles title and breaking her tie for the Open-era record with Steffi
Graf, there was no dodging that number in her own head.
Now, after her 6-4, 6-4 victory
over her sister, she can celebrate No. 23 instead of fret over it.
“I’ve been chasing it for a
really long time,” Williams said. “When it got on my radar, I knew I had an
opportunity to get there, and I’m here. It’s a great feeling. No better place
to do it than Melbourne.”
Source: nytimes.
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