BSP-06 ‘Just getting started’ Serena says heading into US Open final

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TENNIS-USA-OPEN-SERENA-REAX

‘Just getting started’ Serena says heading into US Open final

NEW YORK, Sept 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Serena Williams once again targets a
record 24th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open on Saturday.

Win or lose, the US great says she’s just getting started in the latest
phase of her career.

“I’m still on the way up,” said the 36-year-old, who is playing her
seventh tournament since the birth of daughter Olympia on September 1 2017.
“There’s still much more that I plan on doing.”

Williams came agonizingly close to matching Australian Margaret Court’s
all-time record of 24 major titles at Wimbledon, but fell to Angelique Kerber
in the final.

It was the high point of a return that began in March and has not
surprisingly been, at times, erratic.

But once again Williams has shown she can rise to the occasion on the
game’s biggest stages.

Another US Open title — four years after her sixth — would be not a
culmination but a springboard, she said.

“I just feel like there’s a lot of growth still to go in my game, that’s
actually the most exciting part,” she said.

“Even though I’m not a spring chicken, I still have a very, very bright
future.”

Williams, who has spoken of the emotional roller-coaster of being a new
parent, said adjusting to physical changes in the wake of motherhood has also
been a challenge.

“I don’t feel like me,” she said. “My mom said it takes, like, a full year
to kind of get back. I’m at a full year now, but I’m also laying a sport
professionally.

“I just feel like I’m definitely not there. Even my body is different. I
actually weigh less than I did before I got pregnant, but it’s distributed
differently now.

“I’m still waiting to get to be the Serena that I was — and I don’t know
if I’ll ever be that physically, emotionally, mentally.”

The players that have faced her so far in Flushing Meadows say the current
Serena is tough enough — perhaps as good as ever.

“It’s tough to say,” said Anastasija Sevastova after Williams swept past
her 6-3, 6-0 in the semi-finals. “She played finals in Wimbledon. She’s
playing finals here. I think this year is not bad for her.”

Eighth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who briefly rose to number one last year,
fell to Williams in the quarter-finals, two years after shocking her in the
semis.

“I don’t feel any difference,” Pliskova said of Williams’s game. “She’s
playing with the same power. She can still serve well. I think maybe she’s
back on the level where she was.”

BSS/AFP/RY/10:05 hrs