Greatest tennis story ever?

Williams family on edge over calendar slam

[caption id="attachment_99792" align="alignright" width="235"] TAKE THAT, SISTER: Serena Williams returns to Venus Williams during their US Open quarterfinal at the US Open tennis championship in New York Picture: AFP[/caption]

SERENA Williams and her family want winning the first calendar grand slam since 1988 to be a huge achievement if Serena does it, but not so big a deal if she fails.

The 33-year-old world No 1 took a major step toward the rare feat on Tuesday with a 6-2 1-6 6-3 triumph over older sister Venus to reach the US Open semifinals.

“It is important to me, but at the same time, it is what it is,” Serena said of her quest to complete the calendar slam. “I’ll do what I can.” Venus said that while Serena had been downplaying the calendar slam, she and the family saw it as potentially the crowning achievement on their legend of coming from a poor neighbourhood near Los Angeles to global tennis stardom.

“That would be huge, not just for me, but for my family just for what it represents and how hard we have worked and where we come from.

“It would be a moment for our family,” Venus said. “But at the same time, if it doesn’t happen it’s not going to make or break you.

“We don’t have anything to prove.”

Venus, two years older than Serena at 35, picked up her long-time role of protecting her sister.

“She has nothing to prove. She’s really the best ever,” Venus said. “So what are you going to do? Just try to make it.

“If you don’t, then that’s that and go to the next one.”

Serena, who already holds all four major titles, was surprised to hear about the interest her family had in seeing her complete the calendar slam after she finished off the second “Serena slam” of her career at Wimbledon.

“My success is our success. We all started together and we are still together,” Serena said

“It doesn’t get better than that.” – AFP