Serena Williams Captures 20th Grand Slam With French Open Win, Closes In On Graf’s Record Let’s hear it for our girl! Serena Williams has won another major today with her French Open victory over Lucie Safarova. According to CNN reports : Despite being sapped by a nasty flu for much of the last week, the American beat Lucie Safarova 6-3 6-7 (2) 6-2 to win the French Open on Saturday and claim a landmark 20th major. “It seems a little bit like a dream,” Williams told reporters. “Like, is this really my life? Is this really happening right now? So yeah, it’s really kind of weird.” Heading into Saturday, it looked as if Williams might be vulnerable against Safarova, the 13th seed who was making her debut in a grand slam final. Williams said via a question-and-answer session released by the tournament Friday she had been suffering from the flu and “collapsed” after her draining, comeback victory in three sets in the semifinals against Timea Bacsinszky. She didn’t practice Friday, either, opting to stay at her apartment in Paris and rest. “She had so much fever,” said Mouratoglou. “She stayed in bed the whole day. She tried to walk a little bit. It wasn’t brilliant so she came back.” The Frenchman added that on Saturday her condition improved and the fever disappeared. “I hit a little bit today in the morning and I hit them pretty well,” said Williams. “I was just like, ‘Okay, I have been playing for over 30 years, I know I can at least play tennis.’ After that I just went out to play a match.” When Williams went off court just before the final was about to begin, a dramatic afternoon seemed on the cards. It ended up that way, though no one would have predicted it when Williams surged to a huge lead in the second set. Rallying from a set down to overcome Anna-Lena Friedsam, Victoria Azarenka, Sloane Stephens and then Bacsinszky, overturning a 2-0 deficit in the third was merely child’s play for Williams. Of the seven majors they’ve won together in three years, Mouratoglou said this year in Paris marked Williams’ second-most difficult path to glory behind Wimbledon in 2012. Williams, meanwhile, said it topped her entire list. “Here it was very difficult because she was very sick,” said Mouratoglou. “She was without energy in matches, and to find the energy, she found emotions that were very deep.” Congratulations Serena! We couldn’t be more proud. This French Open win makes 20 master wins for Serena overall. Everyone is talking about how close Serena is to surpassing Steffi Graf’s 22 master wins. Do you think she’ll do it this year? APImages
