Serena Williams. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
DOHA:
Serena Williams, who becomes the oldest player to be ranked world number one in WTA Tour history on Monday, believes she can go on extending that record for some time.
Williams, who made sure of the accolade by reaching the Qatar Open semi-finals yesterday, is at 31 years and five months, already six months older than the previous record-holder Chris Evert, and has plans to continue indefinitely.
The 15 times Grand Slam tournament winner believes she knows why her body feels younger than it is, and may have her coach Patrick Mouratoglou, the director of the well-known tennis academy in Paris, on tour with her full-time this year.
“It’s very important for me (to stay number one),” said Williamsd. “I think it’s important for everyone at the top. And it’s not so lonely as it looks at the top.”
There was a congratulatory advert from Nike, a sponsor, depicting her with a slogan ‘Age is Just a Number.’
Questioned if that was what she thought, and asked how her body feels on court now, she replied: “Fine. Honestly, I have been saying that I feel really young, like I’m 22 or something. So I don’t know if it’s because I don’t play every week, but I feel great. Hopefully I can keep it going.”
A key to future longevity almost certainly lies in not playing too many tournaments.
“I have never played 30 tournaments in a year,” pointed out Williams. “I didn’t play juniors, so I didn’t travel the world and get burned out early.
“I went to school. I also had a couple of unfortunate injuries that put me out for a year, and maybe that helped at the end of the day.”
Williams will now pick and choose tournaments carefully, probably with even more emotional support from a bolstered back-up group as she moves into the last phase of an unorthodox and dramatically unpredictable career.
There may be increasingly powerful opposition.
Victoria Azarenka, the 23-year-old Australian Open champion from Belarus who remains world number one until Monday, Maria Sharapova, the French Open champion from Russia who is a former number one, and perhaps from Petra Kvitova, the 22-year-old former Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic could all make a fist of it.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2013.
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