Serena pursues Grand Slam, looks to join Steffi Graf with 22 major titles
When the 2015 U.S. Open begins Monday, Serena Williams will officially embark on her attempt to complete the final leg of one of the greatest accomplishments in tennis: a calendar-year Grand Slam.
The world No. 1 has enjoyed an incredible 2015 season and is the current defending champion in every Grand Slam on tour. But Williams has never won the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open in the same year. In fact, only two women in tennis history have accomplished that feat: Margaret Court in 1970 and, more recently, Steffi Graf in 1988.
Graf is the record holder for most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era with 22, and Williams ranks second with 21. It is somewhat coincidental that Williams will look to both tie Graf's Grand Slam titles record and match her calendar-year Grand Slam at this coming U.S. Open.
So how do the calendar-year Grand Slam campaigns of Graf and Williams compare?
Age, for one thing, differs. Graf achieved the feat as a 19-year-old in 1988, and Williams is approaching hers as a 33-year-old who will be two weeks shy of her 34th birthday on the day of the 2015 U.S. Open women's final.
Match statistics also tell an interesting story about both women's bids. First-serve percentages and forehand winners are readily available in modern-day tennis, but they are difficult to find for matches from 1988. Graf's stats also represent an entire season, while Williams’ stand for just three-quarters of a year. Still, here are some of the most relevant numbers to compare Williams’ 2015 season so far to Graf's 1988 campaign.
Steffi Graf & Serena Williams
| Stat | Graf, 1988 | Serena, 2015 |
| Tournaments | 14 | 11 |
| Titles won/finals reached | 11/12 | 5/6 |
| Hardcourt record | 38-1 | 25-1 |
| Clay court record | 20-1 | 13-1 |
| Grass court record |
7-0 | 7-0 |
| Overall record |
72-3 | 45-2 |
| W/L games in Grand Slam finals |
57-27 | 43-29 |
| W/L sets in Grand Slam finals |
8-2 | 6-1 |
| Shortest final | 32 minutes (French) |
83 minutes (Wimbledon) |
| Aces in Grand Slam finals |
10 | 41 |
A few of the statistics immediately pop out. Williams is by far the more dominant server, but Graf won more than double the number of total titles in 1988 than Williams has so far in 2015. Graf reached 12 finals in 14 tournaments played, and Williams reached six finals in 11 tournaments.
Both Graf and Williams lost one final, and they both finished the grass court season undefeated. Each lost a single match both on hardcourt and on clay. Graf's third loss in her Grand Slam season came on carpet.
Graf's Grand Slam year was an Olympics year, so she achieved the unique Golden Slam feat, as she won gold for West Germany in in Seoul. Williams is the defending champion in Olympic women's singles, but that medal did not come in the same year as her Grand Slam bid.
Of course, Williams has not won the Grand Slam yet, but she has never been this close. She won three Grand Slam titles in 2002 but did not play in the Australian Open that year. Although Williams has won at least two Grand Slams in the same year seven times, she has never followed up an Australian Open championship with a win at the French Open until this season.
Interestingly enough, Graf also never followed an Australian Open win with a win at a French Open except for in her calendar-Slam season. The pressure each woman faced during that campaign is vastly different. Though Graf was the world No. 1 at the time, she was still a relatively new name on the tour and coverage of her was not nearly as advanced.
Williams, meanwhile, has been the dominant female player on tour for more than a decade. The amount of attention paid to every thing Williams does -- whether it's on a tennis court or out at a restaurant for dinner -- is enormous, and social media and the 24-hour news cycle creates a type of pressure that did not exist in 1988.
And though Williams has a tough job in finishing off this calendar-year Grand Slam, it looks like Graf is at least in Williams’ corner.
Graf used Facebook to congratulate Williams on winning Wimbledon back in July, writing "Just incredible watching Serena continue her winning streak at Wimbledon ... truly an amazing accomplishment!!! Congratulations!"
