World No. 1 Serena Williams, who has won six US Open titles in the past and is currently en route to a seventh, has taken the 307th Grand Slam victory of her career, beating Martina Navratilova’s earlier-standing record of 306, which is the all-time highest for a female player.
Williams now equals Roger Federer’s 307-win record, one that she will look to also break in the Round of 16 at the women's singles.
The record-breaking feat came with a 60-minute win for Williams over Sweden’s Johanna Larson, whom she beat in convincing fashion – 6-1, 6-2. The 34-year-old last month matched Steffi Graf’s 22-Grand Slam record with a title win at Wimbledon, also breaking the German’s longest-ever streak as World No. 1 this week, having held the title for 187 weeks running now.
Williams had been unaware of the record until after her Wimbledon win, saying “"I was really excited to reach that, was it 306? 307? I was really excited to do that. Something I didn't even know about until Wimbledon. I was like, Oh, I have a new goal. That was pretty cool for me. Obviously I want to keep that number going higher and see what can happen.”
Now in line to play Yaroslava Shvedova, Williams looks unstoppable in the tournament this year; it is the sixteenth time the American is in Round 4 of the women’s singles at the US Open Tennis Championships.
Should she win the title at Flushing Meadows this year, Williams will have the highest number of singles titles by any player, male or female, in the Open Era, and inches closer to the all-time record set by Australian ace Margaret Court, who had 24 singles Grand Slams.
If Williams wins this year, it will be her seventh title at the women’s singles at the US Open.
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