Even before this weekend at Australian Open 2021, Serena Williams could achieve yet another remarkable milestone in her four-decade career.
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Downing Naomi Osaka in Thursday’s gargantuan semifinal would mark 363 wins in Grand Slams to take the 39-year-old past Roger Federer for the all-time lead.
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Of course, Williams has eyes on the bigger prize of a 24th Grand Slam title, which would also mean an eighth Australian Open crown and first as a mum.
Indeed, she doesn’t “play to just have fun. To lose is really not fun, to play to lose, personally,” you might recall Williams saying following last year’s upset third-round loss to Wang Qiang at Melbourne Park.
Here’s what has caught the eye from Williams’ stay at AO2021 through five matches.
Free wheeling, free moving, free points
An Achilles injury that affected Williams at the US Open and forced her to give a walkover at the French Open seems to be in the rearview mirror.
Shorter points where Williams dictates with her powerful, precise groundstrokes will always be more to her liking but she has rolled back the years with her scrambling.
It noticeably surfaced in the third round against Anastasia Potapova.
She outlasted the former junior No.1 in a 20-shot rally to wrap up the first set.
Perhaps even more impressive, Williams won a second 20-shot rally to start the second game of the second set. Lunging to repel a huge forehand down the line, racing to a drop shot and striking a defensive lob off Potapova’s lob eventually led to the Russian erring on a smash.
Williams laughed before the point finished.
In the fourth round against her fellow big hitter, Aryna Sabalenka, Williams motored on the baseline at 5-4, 0-15 in the first set to bring another smile to her face.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Williams got the better of one of the game’s best movers, Simona Halep, on a key 20-stroke rally at 3-3 in the second set of their quarterfinal to earn a break point.
“I've worked really hard on my movement,” Williams said. “I like retrieving balls. I mean, obviously I like to be on the offence, but I can play defence really well too.”
When was the last time Williams owned such extended rallies?
“It's definitely been a minute,” quipped Williams. “It's been a long minute. I think the summer of 1926 I think was the last time I felt that.”
Serving up a tasty dish of unplayables
OK, so her defence has shone. And thankfully Williams didn’t roll an ankle again — it happened in the unbelievable 2019 quarterfinal against Karolina Pliskova — when she fell against Sabalenka.
But the serve is still proving to be hugely important for Williams.
She sits second behind Osaka in aces with 32 and her first-serve percentage points won of 79 comes in second after Jennifer Brady among players who made the last 16.
Williams mixed up the serve exceptionally well against Halep. Her serve on the deuce side out wide in many cases either won her the point outright or set up the next shot.
But she said taking the pace off was to help put more first serves in play than against Sabalenka, when Williams served at 49 per cent and 36 per cent in the first two sets.
“My first serve was not where it should be,” said Williams. “I'm just thinking ‘Get it in.’ Because against Sabalenka, I just was thinking ‘Oh, I'm not getting my first serve in.’ Today I'm thinking, ‘Where's that 220 (km/h)?’ It's eluding me right now.’
Emphasising the importance of the first serve, Williams isn’t enjoying as much success behind the second serve.
The tally ended at 40 per cent against Sabalenka and 39 per cent against Halep. Osaka, meanwhile, has registered at least 50 per cent in all but one of her matches.
Big names, no dramas - but can she topple Naomi?
Williams met Sabalenka and Halep in the last two rounds, and those encounters wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Grand Slam semifinal or final.
Sabalenka entered their duel having won 18 of her previous 19 matches, while Halep’s flawless display overcame Williams in the 2019 Wimbledon final.
But such is the incredible depth on the women’s tour that it does not end there for Williams.
In Osaka, she plays a three-time Grand Slam champ riding a 19-match winning streak who also happened to defeat her in the eventful 2018 US Open final.
“I got to keep going,” said Williams. “That’s obviously the goal. I have an incredible opponent to play, so it would be nice to hopefully keep raising the level of my game. I'm going to have to.”
Lockdown laughs, Serena style
Williams’ quip about her movement wasn’t the lone occasion she brought a smile to the faces of those catching her press conferences.
Is sticking to the tournament site and her hotel much different than previously in her career?
“No, I’ve been doing that for 20 years, so I think I’ve been pretty much quarantining for my whole career," she said.