Billie Jean King has called for Serena Williams to focus her full attention on what’s left of her tennis career, as she looks to equal Margaret Court’s Grand Slam haul.
Williams has been stuck on 23 major titles since winning the Australian Open while eight weeks pregnant in 2017, although she did reach two Slam finals upon her return to the sport.
Defeats to Angelique Kerber at Wimbledon and Naomi Osaka at the US Open left her just one Slam behind Court’s 24-strong collection at the end of 2018 and this season has been nothing short of disastrous for the 37-year-old.
Plagued by injury, Williams has completed only 11 matches in 2019 – five of which came at the Australian Open – and there is a sense of the unknown about her chances at Wimbledon.
Catching Court’s record has moved from being framed as when to if and King, one of the greats of the game, warned 37-year-old Williams that she needs to be fully committed at this stage in her career if she’s to successfully chase down the Aussie.
‘I don’t know where she is right now, I talked to her a couple of months ago but not lately,’ King said at the launch of the newly-formatted Fed Cup on Thursday.
‘It depends on her health, how her knee is… I don’t know enough. I think they’re keeping it pretty quiet. I don’t know if she knows what she wants right now or not.
‘But as you get older, you have to work harder. I played until I was 40, smarter and harder. Gotta work smarter, too. It’s got to be very intense but maybe not quite as long.
‘But you have got to workout, you’ve got to watch your nutrition more than ever because you tend to thicken as you get older – it’s a nightmare. But if you love to play, that’s the price you’re willing to pay, I made that decision.
‘Also, ideally I would like her to play more matches before she gets to Wimbledon. In the old days they could kind of get through and then get going by the second week but I think when you’re older, it doesn’t work that way.’
Williams’ priorities have shifted somewhat since becoming a mother but King admitted she wants her compatriot to give 100% to tennis in her remaining years on the WTA Tour.
‘She’s got business, a baby, she’s trying to help gender equity, particularly for women of colour, she’s actually on the Billie Jean King leadership initiative, she and Venus are both advisors for it,’ King added.
Serena Williams 2019 results
Australian Open: Quarter-finals (l. Pliskova)
Indian Wells: Round three (RET Muguruza)
Miami: Round three (W/O Wang)
Rome: Round two (W/O V. Williams)
French Open: Round three (l. Kenin)
‘[It makes winning a Slam] much harder. I would like to see her put everything else aside from that. She’s got people working on these things.
‘This is just a wish I have, it’s not fair to her, but I wish she would just make a commitment for the next year-and-a-half to two years and just say, “I’m going to absolutely devote what’s necessary for my tennis so when I look in the mirror when I’m older that I can go back in my mind and know I gave everything I had and be happy”.
‘But if she’s happy doing it this way it’s fine. It’s not about us.’
While Court’s record is within touching distance, King queried whether it should be the yardstick to measure the greats of the games.
King said: ‘If you’re in baseball or other sports, there’s always an asterisks and it explains, they understand the stats, how it was, how it is and everybody understands the history, we don’t understand the history of tennis at all. It’s terrible, we don’t connect the generations well.
Most Grand Slam titles (men and women)
24 – Court
23 – Williams
22 – Graf
20 – Federer
19 – Wills Moody
18 – Nadal
18 – Evert
18 – Navratilova
15 – Djokovic
14 – Sampras
12 – King
12 – Emerson
11 – Borg
11 – Laver
‘That’s the thing right now, it’s the same with [Roger] Federer and those guys. You don’t think [Rod] Laver would have had more than 11? He missed 20 majors. 20, you guys. 20 when he was a contract pro.
‘That should be brought forward so people at least understand why. People say oh yes 11, and then they don’t say anything and I’m like, really? Seriously? Rod Laver only had 11? I’m like, “Oh, great”.’
King is hopeful the queen of women’s tennis will compete at next year’s newly vamped Fed Cup.
Dubbed the ‘World Cup of Tennis’, 12 nations will battle it out across a six-day period in Budapest starting in April 2020, with a total of roughly £9.5million in prize money, £2.5m of which goes to the winning team.
Great Britain will be involved in February’s 16-team qualifying round, where home-and-away ties are still in force, along with Williams’ USA.
Of course, should Williams commit to the competition, it’s likely the Americans would be handed a wildcard straight to the finals and King hopes to see her compatriot on board.
‘I hope so. It would be great if she’d play,’ she said.
‘I have been watching the women’s [football] World Cup and that is what I want for us.
‘There is a new wave in women’s sport. Team sports are continuing to grow and mega-events like this are absolutely vital.’
