Serena Williams would have won Wimbledon in 2017 if she wasn't pregnant, says Rennae Stubbs

Former doubles World No. 1 Rennae Stubbs believes that Serena Williams would have won the Wimbledon Championships in 2017 if she hadn't been pregnant.

Williams began her 2017 season in dominant fashion, defeating her sister Venus 6-4, 6-4 in the Australian Open final to clinch her 23rd Major title. Shortly after the win, on April 19, Williams announced that she was expecting her first child later that year.

The American veteran had first 'accidentally' revealed the pregnancy when she posted an image on Snapchat that had her posing sideways with what looked like a baby bump. The image captioned “20 weeks” was later deleted, before she officially confirmed the news through social media.

Looking back at Williams' 2017 campaign, Stubbs, speaking on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, stated that she would have won her eighth title at SW19 if it weren't for her circumstances.

"Serena did this little thing called get pregnant. She was so dominant at that point. There's no question that if she hadn't got pregnant, she would have won Wimbledon that year, for sure. She was almost unbeatable at Wimbledon when she was playing well, you know," Stubbs said.

"Would she have won the French? I don't know. It was the toughest one for her to win that year, but no doubt in my mind she would have probably won Wimbledon. US Open was always difficult because it was emotionally such a tough event for her to play for so many reasons, but would she have won there? I would certainly have said her over the field at the US Open that year," she added.

After equaling Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2016, Serena Williams got to one shy of Margaret Court's 24 Majors at Melbourne Park in 2017. Stubbs stated that Williams would have passed Court's record that year, before adding that the Australian's 24-Slam record didn't hold much weight in the first place.

"She probably would have passed Margaret’s 24 Grand Slams. It doesn't count to me. 22 was always the mark, it was always the mark because it was professional tennis. And Margaret Court won 10 Australian Opens and basically eight of them when pretty much there was never a full field," Stubbs opined.

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"I'm not 100% evolving into golf" - Serena Williams laughs off rumors of new career transition

Serena Williams swapped her tennis racquet for a golf club for a new commercial ahead of the upcoming Super Bowl. The ad saw a calm and composed Williams scoring a win against a visibly rattled Brian Cox, an actor known for his role in the series “Succession”.

While that led to murmurs of the 41-year-old picking up golf following her tennis retirement, the American put to bed any such talk during an interview with Gayle King for CBS Mornings.

"I am 100% not evolving into golf," she confirmed.