Of all the storylines in sport right now, none are more significant than the one about Serena Williams and her historic quest to complete the first Calendar Grand Slam of her career.
The U.S. Open begins today meaning Williams, the No. 1-ranked woman in the game, will soon walk out onto Arthur Ashe Court in Flushing Meadows, NY and try to become the first woman since 1988 to win all four Slams in the same year. Should she succeed she will tie Steffi Graf’s tally of 22 Slam victories in the Open Era.
Whether she wins or not, Williams is the story here. That’s why tickets to the women’s final sold out before the men’s.
Williams is the defending U.S. Open champ, having won the tournament the last three years. That fact, coupled with her current form and our own collective interest in the whole historic arc to her season’s narrative, make it difficult to even entertain a scenario where she fails to advance to the final. And yet it’s worth noting that there have been years when she has exited this tournament in less than glorious fashion (threatening to shove a ball down a lineswoman’s throat in 2009 and chastising an umpire for being “unattractive inside” in 2011).
Regardless of those meltdowns Williams remains “The Queen of Queens” because she’s won the U.S. Open six times since 1999. She enters the tournament in astonishingly dominant form, having won 48 of her 50 matches this year.
Though she’s just weeks away from her 34th birthday, her play has been so strong of late that some of her opponents concede they lack the confidence required to beat her. In a sit-down interview with Sportsnet, Williams’s close friend, Caroline Wozniacki, recently explained that Williams is simply in a league of her own while Agnieszka Radwanska added “we’re just trying to reach her.”
The last woman to beat Williams at the U.S. Open was Australia’s Samantha Stosur, who defeated her in that “unattractive” final back in 2011. Stosur is in the tournament as is Venus Williams, who beat Serena in the 2001 final. Having drawn into the same quarter, Venus Williams could face her sister in the quarter-finals. As could Belinda Bencic, the 18-year-old Swiss player who stunned Serena in the semi-final of this year’s Rogers Cup.
Among Williams’ other potential foils: last year’s runner up and current world No. 4, Caroline Wozniacki; Simona Halep (No. 2), who lost to Williams in the final of the Cincinnati Masters two weeks ago; and Maria Sharapova (No. 3). Making her return from an injury, Sharapova hasn’t been seen on tour since the Wimbledon semi-finals when she lost to Williams in straight sets.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard has been in New York for at least a week, enlisting the help of Jimmy Connors in an attempt to fix her game. Bouchard, who has won three of her last 17 matches, has displayed almost none of the promise she had when she graced the front of The New York Times Magazine this time last year. Currently ranked No. 25 in the world, Bouchard plays Alison Riske (No. 56) in the first round. Having lost in her opening match at both Wimbledon and the French Open earlier this year, a victory for Bouchard over Riske should, at this point, be considered an accomplishment.