MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams won her seventh Australian Open singles title and reclaimed the No. 1 world ranking with a 6-4, 6-4 victory on Saturday over her older sister Venus Williams.
Serena’s latest triumph in tennis’s great sibling rivalry also gave her a 23rd Grand Slam singles title, breaking her tie with Steffi Graf for the most in the Open era and putting her within one victory of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.
“Good on her if she’s good enough to do it,” Court said this week in Melbourne.
Serena Williams has closed in on Court with an unprecedented run of success at an age when most great women’s tennis players of the past had already retired.