6th July, 2012
Serena Williams is making no secret of her desperation to crown one of the most inspiring sporting comebacks with a Venus-equalling fifth Wimbledon title tomorrow.
“I really, really want it,” the American superstar said ahead of her championship showdown with Polish history-chaser Agnieszka Radwanska.
Grand slam tennis is littered with heart-warming comeback tales: think Agassi fighting back from the brink and a triple-digit ranking, Capriati’s captivating return from an American jail cell to become world Number 1 or Clijsters’ ecstasy at winning the US Open a year after emerging from retirement to start a family.
And now consider it was little more than one year ago that Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism which the former world No.1 feared could have killed her.
Sixteen months on and Williams has the chance to claim a 14th career major, an incredible feat that would draw the 30-year-old level with fellow American all-time great Pete Sampras’s grand slam haul.
“That would be really cool. That’s obviously what I want,” Williams said.
Already since returning during the 2011 grasscourt season, following a year out recovering from foot surgery and then the ordeal of discovering clots on her lung, Williams also reached – but lost to Samantha Stosur – a US Open final.
Little wonder why she ranks her own comeback from injury and illness equally as Capriati’s, Clijsters’ or Agassi’s.
“It’s been amazing,” Williams said.