Serena Williams insists she can cope with the pressure of calendar grand slam
After capturing her sixth Wimbledon title, American turns her focus to the last remaining hurdle in her quest for clean sweep of major crowns
Wimbledon champion Serena Williams insists she can cope with the pressure of going for a historic calendar grand slam on home turf at the US Open.
Williams is within touching distance of becoming the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four major titles in the same year following her sixth Wimbledon triumph.
I did the whole walk around the court. I was peaceful, feeling really good, then maybe a little after that I started thinking about New York
The 33-year-old American recovered from a slow start to ease to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Spain's Garbine Muguruza that gave her a 21st grand slam crown on Saturday and made her the oldest woman to win a major in the open era.
But Serena had barely finished parading the Venus Rosewater Dish around Centre Court before her thoughts turned to New York and the tantalising prospect of becoming only the fourth woman to complete a calendar-year sweep of the sport's top prizes.
"I did the whole walk around the court. I was peaceful, feeling really good, then maybe a little after that I started thinking about New York," she said.
"I just thought, oh, man, I've won New York three times in a row. I hope this isn't the year that I go down. I want to do well there.