Can ‘stop’ stop Serena Williams?

20 finals, 16 grand slams and 4 runner-ups, and a win rate of 0.79. The records speak for themselves. Playing like it’s her last game always, hitting shots comparable to a bullet train and making her opponent’s chances of winning as minute as an atom, is Serena Williams. A question that lurks in every tennis watcher’s mind when she comes out on court is “Who can stop Serena Williams?”. But I’d say, the more apt question would be “Can ‘stop’ stop Serena Williams?”.

Each time she plays a match, there is a display of sheer passion, control and skill. Maria Sharapova—the No. 2 player in the world and last year’s French Open winner—has lost to Williams the last 12 times they faced and has only won two times in 15 chances. Victoria Azarenka—the No. 3 player in the world—beat Williams in February. It was the last time Williams was defeated, however, and she’s won 12 of the 14 matches between the two. No. 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska has never beaten Williams in four previous attempts and she stood no chance of victory earlier this year in the semi -finals at Miami nor did she even make it to the finals of Roland Garros this year.

There is a reason why she is World no. 1 and yesterday’s Roland Garros final match validates Serena’s dominance. 11 years after her first triumph, here is Serena Williams once again winning the French Open, as she surged past the defending champion Maria Sharapova comfortably with a 6-4 6-4. Sharapova threw everything she could at her to overturn her 12-match losing run against Williams. But if Sharapova was going to make her claim to defend her crown, it really had to be here to put Williams under pressure from the start.

The first set started out to be a bit promising for the Russian, leading 2-0. Which later on went to 3-0 as she took coign of vantage of Williams’s errors. But just as Serena got her head back in the game, you just had the feeling, though, that it was taking every ounce of effort from Sharapova to stay in contention, so it was no surprise when Williams served out for the first set, having nudged ahead again. It was a tough battle between the two, but the last two games just slipped out of Sharapova’s hand just to award the opener to Williams after 51 minutes. The second set started in much the same way, with a long hold and the saving of many break points (again) from Sharapova. But once again the American, who seemed rather calm, came out of her den and thunder bolted the game with aces. Serving for game 5-4, Williams had given Maria a run for her money along with that, a need to catch a breath. With a hundred and ten per cent focus she fixed her stare at her opponent, just as the whole stadium fell to silence. A powerful ace that knocked out Maria Sharapova, took care of her 16^th grand slam in Paris, before she fell on both her knees in disbelief and pride – a standard for all winners. “I played so well leading up to the French Open last year ? and same thing happened again this year ? but I didn’t put any pressure on myself,” Williams said.

So what’s next? Of course! The long awaited Wimbledon Championship. Will Serena continue her dominance in Women’s Tennis or has she reached the peak? “I definitely want to go out in my peak. That’s my goal. But have I peaked yet?,” Williams teased her audience. “I’m really relaxed. I really enjoy every moment that I’m out there. I always said that I felt like I have never played my best tennis,” said the oldest winner in Paris in the Open era.

Serena Williams goes into the Wimbledon as defending champion, and hoping to win one more time to be at par with Roger Federer in the number of grand slams. As of now, her main threats are as mentioned above, Maria Sharapova, Azarenka and Radwanska. But we know Serena as she is; a fighter and a perfectionist. She just as to ‘keep calm’ and focus on herself, like she did this French Open.

Wimbledon is a whole new type of court altogether. In terms of the weather, and the type: lawn. Williams has won there 5 times before and will hope to make it her 6^th by July 7^th. “It’s not going to be easy for me. I’m going to have to get really serious about my game and be really focused to ever catch Roger Federer.” Said Serena when asked about her next title which will equal her to Roger Federer.

It’s a sport, and in sports, champions come and go. Well.. being a champion and staying at the top are two different things requiring different skills. I believe that for every champion this is the real test. I agree, a time will come when Serena has to step down, but as of today there is no-one who can match her skill , and there sure isn’t anyone who is likely to push her off the throne anytime soon. As said earlier, she is staying at the peak of invincibility. All the Tennis fans are eagerly counting down to June 24, when the Wimbledon Championship will begin, and we’ll once again see exciting matches to see who triumphs there. And we will get to see if someone’s ‘stop’ can ever stop Serena Williams.