Serena Williams’ verdict that she is “a bit disappointed” with her season this year indicates her urgency to overtake the 18 Grand Slam titles of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, and to get on with chasing Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22.
Whether the 32-year-old still has time to achieve that may be suggested by her performances at the season-ending climax, the WTA Championships, which was scheduled to start yesterday.
It was an extraordinarily critical self-judgement by Williams on a season in which she has won another two Grand Slam titles and taken her total to 17 — perhaps caused by a fear that time is short.
More than that, Williams has lost only four matches, taken her career earnings past US$50 million and become the oldest woman to hold the world No. 1 ranking.
The player most capable of upsetting her is Victoria Azarenka, who has no doubt over where the American stands in the history of the sport.
“She can be the greatest of all time,” Azarenka said after losing to Williams last month in the longest US Open women’s singles final in 30 years. “Serena’s still not done.”
The Belarusian also suggested that the American now focuses more intensely and raises her level more dangerously when it really matters.
Williams has lost twice to Azarenka this year — in Doha in February, the day after having regained the No. 1 ranking from her rival — and in Cincinnati in August, after leading for most of the match.
“Against her, you have to take risks,” Azarenka says, “because she will [do that], and she will do that really well.”
Azarenka will need to recover from a disappointing build-up to the WTA Championships. The world No. 2 lost in the second round in Tokyo, where she had been feeling unwell, and in the first round in Beijing, where she served 15 double faults.
Other qualifiers in an eight-player field are Agnieszka Radwanska, the former Wimbledon finalist from Poland, Li Na, the Chinese pioneer who reached her third Grand Slam final in Melbourne this year and Petra Kvitova, the 2011 WTA Championships winner.
Also playing are Sara Errani, the Italian who also tops the world rankings in doubles, Jelena Jankovic, the former world No. 1 from Serbia, and Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but