Last week, speaking to French newspaper L'Equipe, Steffi Graf talked about the stress she had felt at the 1988 US Open as she inched towards becoming only the second woman in the Open era to achieve a calendar grand slam.
“I was feeling the expectation around me that wasn’t mine, and that was becoming suffocating and stopping me concentrating on my tournament,” the German said. “It was terrible. Everyone was talking to me about this chance and I couldn’t understand the attention. I was just relieved when it was finished – 27 years on I find it unbelievable to have been able to resist the pressure.”
Graf was 19 at the time, so you can only imagine how exhausted a much older Serena Williams must be feeling at present. The American is the first woman to win the Australian and French Opens double since Jennifer Capriati (2001), but it is too early to be talking about a calendar slam, or even a repeat of the 2002/03 “Serena Slam”, when she held all four majors at the same time. Williams is on three at present and she will be 33 years and 288 days old when the women’s final at Wimbledon is played next month.
The oldest woman to win a major is Martina Navratilova, who won the 1990 Wimbledon singles crown at 33 years and 262 days. This is not to suggest Williams is incapable of eclipsing that record or completing a calendar slam this year to equal Graf’s Open era record (22) of most major crowns.
No record is beyond her, but given her aching limbs, she could do without the burden of expectation.
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