Serena Williams is still on course for her 23rd grand slam title by suppressing the challenge of British Number One Johanna Konta 6-2 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the eighth time on Wednesday.
Her next match will be against her sister venus williams
Serena Williams’ number one goal in 2017 will definitely be to get that 23rd Grand Slam title and move ahead of Steffi Graff on the all-time list- and wouldn’t she love to do it in Melbourne and get it out of the way?
Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam title as a teenager at Flushing Meadows in 1999, but she did not claim her first title down under until 2003- a victory also significant because it was the final piece of the Serena Slam.
Williams had been involved in an epic quarter final collapse against Martina Hingis in 2001, but she was on the other side of the divide in 2003, when she came back, virtually from the dead, to beat Kim Clijsters in the semi-final. She went on to beat big sister, Venus in the final to claim her maiden Australian Open title.
Serena also won the title in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2015, while sprinkling absences in 2004 and 2011. No other woman has won more than four Australian titles in the Open Era. (The great Margaret Court is well clear on the overall list with a staggering 11 titles, but seven of those were won before the Open Era commenced in 1968).
Serena will not get to Court’s 11 Australian Open titles (she won’t, no?), but at some point in the nearest future, she will surely win her 23rd Grand Slam title to become the most successful women’s singles’ champion in the Open Era. That will be the mission in Melbourne.
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