The elusive dream of Serena Williams

• Azarenka, leaves Serena without her date with history

Serena Williams has played in the semifinals of a Grand Slam in four different decades.

You have to rest the data to understand the magnitude of her career: it is not only the domain, but how long it extends.

In total there are

of which in 33 they continued until the final.

It has not been like that in this US Open, where she fell against Victoria Azarenka.

And this is where the fracture in her career opens: since she returned from her maternity leave, she has not managed to win a big one.

The account is still stuck at 23, one of Margaret Court's absolute record.

Serena won 23 of her first 29 Grand Slam finals.

The last one on her track record is the 2017 Australian Open, the last tournament she played before becoming a mother.

Since she returned to the circuit she has played four other finals and has lost all four without winning a single set.

.

Two against stars who had already been number one in the world, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep, and two against promises who had not been born when she raised her first big, Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu.

Williams had a very difficult delivery.

As he later confessed, he suffered a

that nearly cost him his life.

Just getting back to racing six months later was amazing, even more so to hit two Grand Slam finals in less than a year.

She wouldn't need any of this to retire as the greatest tennis player of all time.

"Just being here I'm already happy, because there was a moment I was very close to not being," he said this week.

"I keep fighting, and that is something that I am so proud of, that I never give up."

Auspicious US Open

This strange US Open, without an audience, and with masks and social distance, seemed like a great opportunity for Serena.

Among the injuries and concern about the pandemic, six of the top ten tennis players in the world were missing.

And of the applicants who were, some said goodbye long before their time

During the tournament she had advanced with some difficulty.

It took three sets and a couple of comebacks to beat Sloane Stephens, Maria Sakkari or Tsvetana Pironkova.

But back in a semifinal, number 38, it seemed possible.

Opposite was Victoria Azarenka, many times rival and victim:

.

The American came out overwhelming: 6-1 with three service breaks.

The closest thing to Serena that has been seen in 2020. But then ... Then Azarenka woke up, who has resurfaced and had been dominating as she had not been able to.

When she arrived in New York three weeks ago, she had not won a game for more than a year and now has 11 victories that have earned her the Cincinnati Open (her first title in four years) and a US Open final against Osaka.

Serena Williams

.

He has fewer and fewer bullets left, but he will continue to chase those 24 'big' Margaret Court.

It would be useless to deny it.

"When there's an elephant in the room, you can't say you don't see it, but it's not easy to believe it," her trainer Patrick Mouratoglou said in the 'New York Times'.

And while you don't need to get it to get to the top, it wouldn't be Serena if you stopped trying.

"I'm not going to be satisfied until I retire. This is how I got here."

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