I’m definitely not fatigued in the sense of match play at all, or even physically.
Serena Williams won her last Grand Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open when she beat her older sister Venus in the final while pregnant with her daughter Olympia. That was more than three and a half years ago. Since then, she has lost in her last four Grand Slam finals, including twice at the U. S. Open. Williams, who turns 39 next month, enters this U. S. Open still stuck on 23 career major titles and still needing one more to tie Margaret Court’s all-time record. “I’ve been definitely proudly stuck here, party of one,” she said Saturday in a Zoom call ahead of the start of the U. S. Open on Monday. “So I’m pretty happy about it, but obviously I’m never satisfied. That’s been the story of my career, so it is what it is. I took a year and half off for a baby. “I’ll never be satisfied until I retire. I’m never going to stop until I retire. That’s just my personality, that’s how I got to be here.” Williams, the No.3 seed at the Open, remains the betting favorite to win the title, even though she is just 3-2 in matches since the tennis restart. Six of the world’s top women are skipping the event over COVID concerns, so Williams theoretically stands a better chance of winning.
