Serena Williams insists her hunger for success has not waned and that she’s still targeting bigger goals in tennis, including competing with her sister Venus at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The world No1 kicks off her Dubai campaign today against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova in the second round and is hoping her late entry into the draw this week can make up for her last-minute withdrawal from last year’s event in the Emirates.
Serena, 32, has 17 Grand Slams singles titles in her resume, four Olympic gold medals and has so far been ranked No1 in the world for a total of 176 weeks. Her return to the top spot 12 months ago followed a period of mind-blowing results that included her picking up titles at Wimbledon, Olympics, US Open and the season-ending WTA Championships in 2012.
She added the French Open and US Open crowns to her trophy cabinet last year and despite crashing out of Australia last month and dealing with a back injury, Serena says she’s still as eager to pick up more silverware. “Nothing is extra gravy for me,” Serena told reporters yesterday at the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel.
“I don’t want to stop like that. I always have things to accomplish until the day I stop. “I can only hope to improve, obviously I want to do better. I’m the kind of person that – I always want to reach a higher no matter what my previous goal was. I try to beat that.”
Serena has never won the title in Dubai in either of her two previous appearances here. She says her goal is to always win the tournament she’s in but considering she hasn’t played in four weeks and has been dealing with her back problems, she’s says the pressure is off of her.
When asked about the progress of her back, Serena said: “It’s better. I’m taking it a day at a time and it’s definitely better than it was. “It gets boring going to practice every day. I was like ‘I don’t want to practice every day, I want to play a match’. So I’m just really happy that I was able to enter in time to play this event.
“I really wanted to play here, so I was really excited to have the opportunity especially seeing that I wasn’t able to play last year. So I felt really good that I could kind of make up for last year.” Serena is also present in the doubles draw, where she’ll be teaming up with Venus.
She says she continues to be inspired by Venus’ fight against Sjogren’s Syndrome – an auto-immune disease she’s been diagnosed with three years ago – and that her older sister is on her way back to top shape.
“My injuries are nothing compared to hers (Venus’),” said Serena, who had to face her own share of health issues when she suffered a pulmonary embolism and a hematoma in early 2011.
“She’s living with something every day whereas I just had to go through a moment, I had to get through that and then I could heal, I could get better. Just watching her every day, whether she wins, loses or just play is incredibly inspiring for someone like me. It’s been great knowing that she can even be here and play and just do her best.
“You can definitely see that she’s feeling better about her game. It took her while to get into this position so now that she’s there, she’s practicing better, practicing more. It’s still baby steps, she obviously still wants to get better, she’s climbing the mountain, she’s not at the top yet but she’s getting there.”
Quizzed about whether a doubles appearance with Venus in Rio 2016 is a possibility, Serena quickly responded: “Absolutely, that’s our thing. We really want to get there.”
