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SERENA LEADS US CHARGE

Former world number one Serena Williams came back from a set down to beat her Belarusian opponent Anastasiya Yakimova in three sets to clinch the Fed Cup tie for the United States of America before her sister paired up with Liezel Huber in the doubles to round off a 5-0 whitewash of the depleted Belarusian team.

Serena won her match in the World Group II to help the United States of America to take another step towards their record 18th title with a score of 5-7, 6-1, and 6-1.

This was the first time that Serena took to the court after her disastrous Australian Open campaign and she looked extremely sharp throughout the competition, prompting many to conclude that the younger Williams was back to her best and will pose a serious threat to the young girls who are sitting on top of the WTA rankings at the moment and will push them all the way when the next Grand Slam sets in.

If she manages to hold her form for the next few WTA events where she is scheduled to participate in, Serena Williams would do her Olympic Games credentials a lot of good and the former Grand Slam winner might get another crack at the Singles event of the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games. Having won the Gold Medal in the Doubles in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games as well as the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 with her sister Venus Williams, this year will probably provide her with her last shot at the Singles title to complete a Career Grand Slam.

But Serena Williams is not at all worried about the Olympic Games at the moment and all she wants to do now is get back to top physical condition so that she can compete with the best.

Serena Williams still the Toughest

The tenth ranked women’s tennis player in the world Andrea Petkovic believes that 13 time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams is still the toughest player in the women’s circuit and by far the toughest player she has met in her entire career and believes that it takes a whole lot of courage, guts and stamina to get the better of the younger Williams sister in any scenario. Petkovic also believes that although she is nowhere near the top ten players in the world, Serena still has the capability to launch a comeback and breeze through to the top 10 and win a couple of Grand Slam events as well.

Although ranked 12th in the world, it will take Serena a few tournament wins before she can break the top 10 barrier once again and her quest for the top of the mountain once again begins from the Brisbane International tournament that will begin in a few days’ time at Brisbane, Australia, ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year. Serena Williams will begin the tournament seeded fourth behind Samantha Stosur, Andrea Petkovic and Francesca Schiavone and Petkovic believes that it would be foolish to write Serena off on the basis of the seed distributions.

The American last played in a WTA event in the final of the US Open where her tantrums made her extremely unpopular among her fellow professionals but Petkovic believes that the anger shown by Serena was nothing but indomitable will to win.

Petkovic went on to add that while growing up, Serena Williams was an idol for her after the retirement of Steffi Graf and she dreamed of playing against her in singles match and the way the seeded players are lined up in the tournament, that dream of hers might become a reality once again.