Serena Williams started playing tennis on the public courts in suburban Los Angeles at age five with her sister Venus, both of them dreaming of someday becoming a Grand Slam champion.
Williams turned her fantasy into reality by winning the 1999 US Open at age 17 and 14 years later, she is on the verge of her 17th Grand Slam crown and a fifth US Open title, facing second-ranked Victoria Azarenka in Sunday’s final.
“I just am still that girl with the racquet a dream and I’m just playing for that,” said Williams, who could become the oldest women’s singles champion in US Open history by taking the trophy 18 days shy of her 32nd birthday.
World number one Williams won her second French Open title this year, 11 years after her only other, and already has five Wimbledon and five Australian Open titles in her career.
A victory Sunday would put Williams one Grand Slam crown shy of matching Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for second on the all-time Open-era Slam singles title list with 18, four shy of Steffi Graf’s record 22 crowns.
“I never really want to focus on the numbers,” Williams said. “I started playing tennis not to be the greatest but just because I had a racquet and a dream. Now people are saying I could be (the greatest), but for me, I’m just not there yet.”
“People like Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, they are just, to me, the ultimate icons in the history of women’s tennis.”