After winning her 23rd Grand Slam title Serena Williams described herself as being ‘Thirty-fun years old’.
‘I keep saying I don’t have anything to lose, and I meant it this time,’ she said, after reaping the dual dividend of returning to world No 1 and overtaking Steffi Graf’s open-era record of 22 Slams.
This sounds like bad news for the rest of the field, whose only crumb of encouragement is that her real age is 35.
Yet, unlike for some of 2016, there has been no sign of waning powers, not when Williams has gone through a fortnight without dropping a set.
About the only awkwardness has been the repeated questions about her impending marriage to fiance Alexis Ohanian sometime this year, which she has become deftly skilled at deflecting.
‘I came here and said I don’t want to talk about it until February,’ said Williams, whose future husband was in her support box to watch her sweep away her sister Venus 6-4, 6-4. She namechecked virtually everyone in there, but the poor fellow did not get a mention.
As well as her older sibling played here, Venus is unlikely to be the one who prevents Serena from formally overtaking Margaret Court’s overall tally of 24 majors which were, in any case, secured when the currency was somewhat different.
Eleven of Court’s haul were Australian Opens collected between 1960 and 1973. That was hardly a mean feat, but back then there was nothing like the international contingent who would make the then achingly long journey to the southern hemisphere.
Williams is the greatest of all, and this was the seventh time in the last nine Slams in which she made the final, which does not suggest any slide at all.
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