Serena Williams’s
US Open rout of Wang Qiang was a reminder of her powers but she has faltered at the last in recent slams and faces an in-form opponent nextBy the end of her 44-minute 6-1, 6-0 obliteration of China’s Wang Qiang on Tuesday night,
Serena Williams seemed to be unplayable. Wang was competing in her first career grand slam quarter-final, but the truth is that she was merely a spectator. She hit zero winners and won only four points in the second set. “After playing her, now I can see why she deserves everything she’s achieved,” she said in Chinese afterwards. However, Williams is focused only on achieving more. As she waved to the crowd in celebration, the camera just caught her face as she whispered four ominous words under her breath: “I’m coming for it.”
We have been here before. Since returning from pregnancy 16 months ago, Williams has reached three grand slam finals. For anyone else, this would be a sublime achievement but each of her straight-sets losses to Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep she has been unable to find her form under pressure and her performances have been deemed a disaster. “Everyone, even when I’m three months out of pregnancy, they still expect me to win,” she said this week.