Serena Williams targetting sixth Australian Open title

Serena Williams

Melbourne, Jan 17 (IANS)

Women's World No.1 tennis player Serena Williams has spoken of her hunger to win the Australian Open, starting Monday, after four years of disappointment and claim a record sixth title.

Serena has won the Australian Open five times but her last win was in 2010.

"It would be really great. I've been going for number six for a number of years now," Serena was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald Saturday.

"It would be really special for me. I would be really happy. I want it I think more than anyone else here. But that doesn't mean I'm going to get it, so I'll have to fight hard to get it."

Williams' was in prime form last year, winning her 18th Major in the US Open, but has had some disappointing results in the warm-up tournaments leading up to the Australian Open. She has blamed her recent struggles on fatigue.

"I definitely feel better now than I did a couple of weeks ago. But I still want to improve some things. I feel like I should be doing some things better. But every day I can see something coming through, so there's a little light at the end of the tunnel," the American said.

Victory in the first Grand Slam of the season would elevate Serena to the second spot on the all-time Major winners list. Currently she is tied with legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on 18 but remains four behind stalwart Steffi Graf's 22. Serena said she was motivated to reach Graf's remarkable figures.

"Yeah, of course. But 22 is so far away from 18. When you're 18 years old, you look at someone that's 21, you think they're old. So it's a really big distance to get to 22. I can't think that far ahead. I just have to think about 2015 at the Australian Open in particular."