With Slam hopes alive, Serena Williams takes on Wimbledon - SFGate
Serena Williams heads to Wimbledon halfway to a Grand Slam. Williams prefers to downplay her chances of becoming the first tennis player in more than a quarter-century to win all four major tournaments — Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U. S. Open — in the same season. “I haven’t done well at Wimbledon recently, so that’s the only one that’s kind of eluding me,” Williams said, managing to keep a straight face and perhaps hoping to convince herself as much as anyone who might be listening. When play begins at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament Monday, Williams will be ranked No. 1 and seeded No. 1, and there is no doubt that she is far and away the best women’s player on the planet at the moment. Already the Year of the Triple Crown in horse racing, 2015 could wind up being the Year of the Grand Slam in tennis and golf, with Jordan Spieth halfway to a 4-for-4 calendar year at his sport’s major championships. In tennis, only two men and three women have done it. The last man was Rod Laver in 1969. The last woman was Steffi Graf in 1988. “Why not. There are others who could win Wimbledon, of course, challengers such as 2004 champion Maria Sharapova , two-time winner Petra Kvitova or 2013 runner-up Sabine Lisicki. But as 18-time major champion and ESPN analyst Chris Evert put it when discussing Williams: “I mean, it’s all up to her. Source: www.sfgate.com
