Serena's quest: Only settle for the best

Boil it down to its essence, and Serena Williams’ excellence could be summed up in two words: never settle. 

The 23-time major champion has set the bar ridiculously high for herself ever since she stepped foot onto a Grand Slam stage in 1998, as a doe-eyed 16-year-old with desire even bigger than her outsized dreams.

The same fire burns in her today. At 39, laser-focused, she expects nothing less than greatness. 

Four Grand Slam finals reached since her return from maternity leave in 2018, and a semi-final appearance at the US Open earlier this month would be a dream for many players out there. But not if you're Serena Williams.

“I think a semi-final is always great. Is it great for me? Absolutely not. That's just how I feel. That's how I always feel. I'm in a position in my career where I cannot be satisfied,” she told reporters on Saturday in Paris ahead of her next attempt at tying Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 majors won.

“I don't want to sit here and say, 'Oh, I'm happy'. Because I'm not.” 

Williams, who turned 39 on Saturday, will face American Kristie Ahn in the first round for a second consecutive Grand Slam.

More than five years after Williams became the oldest women’s singles champion in Roland-Garros history in the spring of 2015, the American can hardly believe she’s still out there competing for the sports’ biggest prizes. 

“I honestly never thought I would be playing at my age,” she said. “I don't know when it's going to stop for me. I just have fun. When I feel it's over, it's over.”

Like many other players in the 2020 Roland-Garros field, Williams, the No.6 seed, arrives to Paris with no clay matches under her belt in the build-up. She hasn’t played on the red dirt since fellow American Sofia Kenin stunned her out of Paris in the third round last year, handing her her earliest Grand Slam exit since 2014. 

She says she’s been spending the time rehabbing the Achilles she strained during her US Open semi-final defeat to Victoria Azarenka, and training in the South of France with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou. 

“I didn't play any tune-ups, which is really rare,” she said. “But this whole year has been really rare. After New York I flew to France and I've just been training at Patrick's academy, mostly rehabbing, trying to be ready. So that was basically what it was, rehab and training.”

And the injury? Maybe not perfect, but good to go. 

“I wouldn't be playing if I didn't think I could perform,” Williams said. "I'm not at 100 per cent physically. But I don't know any athlete that ever plays physically when they're feeling perfect. That's just something I think as athletes we have to play with.” 

When you have won 23 of the 75 Grand Slam main draws you have contested, and you are far and away the WTA’s active leader with 13 clay-court titles -- including three at Roland-Garros -- a little leeway should be granted. Williams may not be the consensus top favourite at Roland-Garros this year, but she must be considered a serious threat to hoist the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen every time her name appears in the draw. 

Williams may have failed to equal Court’s record on her first nine attempts, and she came up short in her last four major finals, but in her mind it just means that she’s right where she needs to be. 

“Obviously I feel like I'm so close to doing better, just playing better,” she said. “Honestly, I just need to keep playing matches and keep playing people.”

The quest continues…