Serena Williams has fallen flat on her face again in her bid to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles. This time Williams’ loss was to Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu and what makes it better is that she lost in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5.<\/p>\n
Andreescu, 19, is a raw hand at the game; she has never played in the main draw of the US Open before. Last year, ranked 208, she was beaten in the first round by Olga Danilovic. Williams appears to be obsessed with being the winner of most Grand Slams before she quits the game. But after returning from maternity leave, she has shown the inability to cope with the pressure of a final. Her last win was in the Australian Open in 2017, when she beat her sister, Venus, 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n Unlike many other players, Williams is obsessed with herself. Not for her the low-profile attitude cultivated by the likes of Roger Federer or Steffi Graf. The German woman, who dominated tennis for many years, was a great example for others.<\/p>\n In 1988, Graf thrashed Russian Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in the final of the French Open in 34 minutes, the shortest and most one-sided Grand Slam final on record. And Zvereva had beaten the great Martina Navratilova en route to the final!<\/p>\n Yet Graf was low-key at the presentation. She did not laud it over Zvereva who was in tears, she did not indulge in triumphalism. One shudders to think of the way Williams would have carried on in such a situation. Graf was graciousness personified.<\/p>\n Williams is precisely the opposite. When she wins, it is because she played well. And when she loses, it is all because she did not play well. Her opponent only gets some reluctant praise.<\/p>\n It is time for Williams to do some serious soul-searching and consider whether it is time to bow out. This constant search for a 24th title \u2014 and I’m sure she will look for a 25th after that to be atop the winners’ list \u2014 is getting a little tiresome.<\/p>\n In life, there is a time for everything as it says in the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes. Williams has had a good run but now her obsession with another win is getting on people’s nerves. There is much more to women’s tennis than Serena Williams \u2014 and it is time that she realised it as well and retired.
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\nWilliams has now lost four Grand Slam finals in pursuit of 24 wins: Angelique Kerber defeated her at Wimbledon in 2018, Naomi Osaka defeated her<\/strong><\/a> in the last US Open and Simona Halep accounted for Williams at Wimbledon this year. In all those finals, Williams was unable to win more than four games in any set. And now Andreescu has sent her packing.<\/p>\n
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