Greg Rusedski has backed Serena Williams to ‘do a Pete Sampras’ and win the 2022 US Open because the tennis legend confirmed her upcoming retirement plans.
The 40-year-old 24-time Grand Slam champion, essentially the most embellished feminine participant within the Open Period, despatched shockwaves by way of the game on Tuesday, revealing her 27-year profession is sort of at an finish after she turned professional in 1995 aged simply 14.
Tributes have flooded in since, from mega celebrities corresponding to Kim Kardashian to present gamers corresponding to American world No.11 Coco Gauff, with the latter describing Williams because the GOAT (Biggest Of All Time) and lauding her affect.
However earlier than Williams retires, she is going to play the ultimate Grand Slam of the 12 months on the US Open – which runs from August 29 to September 11 – as she seems to elevate her seventh Flushing Meadows crown in New York after she first received it in 1999.
If she had been to emerge victorious on the 2022 US Open, Williams would equal Margaret Court docket’s file of 25 Grand Slam titles in what could be a fairy-tale end to an unbelievable profession.
‘No query about it, she is the best male or feminine tennis participant in the mean time,’ Rusedski informed Sky Sports activities Information.
‘She has essentially the most majors within the Open Period, you’ve acquired to take a look at the depth of the sport and the era she’s gone by way of as properly.
‘Perhaps she doesn’t have the file of 24, however what she’s achieved in addition to her again story to realize what she’s achieved. No query about it. She is a whole athlete.
‘She’s field workplace. She’s carried girls’s tennis for the final 20 years together with her sister Venus as properly, you’ve clearly had different nice gamers round them, however she brings your non-tennis fan to the game.
‘If you understand completely nothing about tennis, you understand the title Serena Williams. She’s iconic and we’re dropping an icon of our sport and she or he will likely be really, really missed.
‘If she catches a scorching streak, she may retire in the identical approach that Pete Sampras did by profitable his final main he ever performed in, which was the US Open in 2002. So, don’t low cost Serena or nice champions at their peril.
‘I feel she has one [major win] in her in New York. Let’s not overlook, she’ll be on Arthur Ashe stadium for each match she performs and when you’ve gotten 20,000 individuals cheering each ball it’s very daunting in your opponent.’
Williams is presently in motion on the Nationwide Financial institution Open in Toronto, Canada and is then anticipated to play in Cincinnati on the Western & Southern Open earlier than heading to Flushing Meadows.
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