Serena Williams set the marker that matters – no asterisks needed

Seven years ago, as Serena Williams continued to consolidate her career records and her claims as the greatest of all time, a reporter asked her to identify the all-time record in her sights. Williams had 19 grand slam titles back then, just past the marker of 18 set by Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. She sighed deeply, but she was smiling: “Stefanie Graf has it, she has [22],” she said, without hesitation. “It’s there, I can see it, just because you can see it doesn’t mean you can reach it.”

Williams will play out the final tournaments of her career in the coming weeks after announcing her imminent retirement in Vogue on Tuesday and, for the record, she did achieve the ultimate goal she had set for herself then. At the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant with her daughter, Alexis Olympia, Williams surpassed Graf to clinch the open-era record of a 23rd grand slam title.

But then the narrative shifted. Even though the Open era of professional tennis has long been the important marker of the sport’s records, the 24 grand slam titles won by Margaret Court came into view. It was circulated by pundits and fans, and Williams eventually bought into it, legitimising it. In her Vogue essay on Tuesday, she described in more detail.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record,” Williams wrote. “Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a grand slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record. Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus grand slams.”

What matters is that over her 27-year career, Williams set the marker that matters for all who follow her, no asterisks needed. She reached a level of tennis that has never been