Serena Williams is determined to accelerate her revival into one of the great comebacks by challenging for the title at the year-end WTA Championships that start in Madrid today.
The former holder of all four Grand Slams seemed headed for such a comeback when she started this year by winning the Australian Open, fully two years since last contesting any final.
That made her the lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam title in nearly 30 years.
PHOTO: AFP
Williams was then at 81 in the world; now she is up to five. But her year stalled with injuries to her groin, knee, calf, and thumb, damaging her chances at Wimbledon and causing her to miss four American hard court events later in the summer.
Although she made a partial recovery in two European tournaments, she then suffered a thigh problem while losing last month's Moscow final to Elena Dementieva, something Serena claims will not hinder her in the coming week.
"Can you believe I played my third event in a row?" the injury-prone star asked, referring to a three-week sequence in Stuttgart, Moscow and Zurich. "I don't believe I have ever done that in my career."
"I am determined to make good at the end of the year," she said, and few doubt that she can -- but only if all the ailments have receded.
The real front runner for the tour climax title is the holder Justine Henin, who will be presented with the year-end world number one award before the tournament begins.
For a player who started the tour six weeks late and in despair after the break-up of her marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne, this is a remarkable achievement.
Henin has won the French and US Opens, taking her total of grand Slam titles to seven.
The Belgian is also certain to be sixth equal on the all-time list of world number ones with a total of 98 weeks at the top by the time next season starts.
All the stats therefore say she should win the title.
But there are two obvious threats. One is Serena Williams regaining the form which enabled her to defeat Henin in the Miami final back in April. The other is tiredness. Henin has played a lot of tennis.
"I need to recover now and take a few days off to be with my family and friends," she said after winning in Zurich. "I've always been getting to the semis and finals of tournaments this year, so the weeks are very long for me."
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