NEW YORK (AP) — A couple of months before Serena Williams capped her dominant run to a third consecutive U.S. Open championship and 18th major singles title Sunday night, she sat down with coach Patrick Mouratoglou to decipher why the season had been such a struggle by her standards.
At the time, Williams was coming off a third-round loss at Wimbledon, which followed a second-round loss at the French Open, which followed a fourth-round loss at the Australian Open — and, when Grand Slam success defines a legacy, that simply wouldn’t do. The quest to match Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova at 18 was weighing on her.
Williams regrouped and stopped her mini-slump, never dropping more than three games in any set, including a 6- 3, 6-3 victory over close friend Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday’s final.
“When Serena is on her game, there’s not much we can do,” said the 10th-seeded Wozniacki.
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