When the French Open begins on Sunday, 33-year-old Serena Williams will open as the No. 1 seed and clear favorite to win her 20th Grand Slam singles title.
Williams, who owns two Roland Garros crowns, surpassed Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova and Chrissie Evert on the all-time list by winning the Australian Open in January. Serena is now tied at 19 Majors with Helen-Wills Moody.
Next up is Steffi Graf at 22, followed by the all-time leader Margaret Court at 24.
Navratilova told the Tennis Podcast that “it is possible” that she could pass Court’s 24, but also warned that Williams’ journey from 19 titles to 25 will be a very difficult.
“Serena is amazing, and she will get to 20 slams for sure,” said Navratilova. “She put her career into another gear three years ago after that loss to Virginie Razzano at the French Open. She really focused herself on the sport. She realized that her time was running out and that if she wanted to make her mark on the sport she had better get going, and she has barely lost any matches since then. She has really dominated the sport in the last three years. What is impressive to me is that she’s doing it at this age.
“It remains to be seen how deep she can go into the 20s, depending on how her body holds up and on motivation. Even if she gets to 22, passing Margaret Court is still a long way away. It definitely gets harder when you are in your 30s but at the same time, the new generation hasn’t quite caught up to Serena so she has a nice window there. There are plenty of good players but nobody has been able to really bother her or put up a solid rivalry. So it is possible that she will pass Margaret Court. If anybody can do it, Serena is in a great position. But it still is a tall order.”
