The milestones continue to whizz past for Serena Williams, who is running out of records to break and history to rewrite as she approaches the business end of a tournament she has won six times, including three of the past four years.
Should the world No1 prevail in Saturday’s third-round match at the US Open against Sweden’s Johanna Larsson, it will mark her 307th career victory in grand slam play and lift her past Martina Navratilova for the most in the Open era.
“Sometimes I don’t even know that I’m hitting these milestones,” she said. “But some of them I’m really proud of. This one’s kind of cool.”
On Thursday, the 22-times grand slam champion tied the record beneath the new Arthur Ashe Stadium roof with a fairly straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over her countrywoman Vania King. With Jay Z and Beyonce looking on from her players’ box, Williams pounded 13 aces and 38 winners compared with her opponent’s four, closing the show in a scant 65 minutes.
But the chronic perfectionist was highly critical of her performance afterwards, lamenting her 28 unforced errors and inconsistent return game.
“I feel like I made a lot of errors,” Williams said. “I just didn’t have a great day today. But it’s always good to get a win when you’re not at your best.”
That Williams can perform so highly on an off day should warrant concern for the 47th-ranked Larsson, who bowed in straight sets in their only two meetings. The 28-year-old has assured herself a career-high ranking after matching her furthest journey into a major tournament with Thursday’s second-round win over the Czech Denisa Allertova, but will be a heavy underdog against Williams at a tournament where she has won 28 of her last 29 matches.
The top-seeded Williams is humbled by her chance to eclipse Navratilova, whom she called “one of the best players to ever play tennis, someone that I never even thought I could be as good as numbers-wise”. But it is a milestone that pales compared with Steffi Graf’s professional-era mark for grand slam titles, which Williams can eclipse with five more wins here.
“I knew it was on the horizon,” said Williams of Saturdays potential history-making win. “I knew at Wimbledon that I wanted to get there. Obviously I’m excited about that. I would like to take one more step, several more steps.”
