Leading men of Tennis cheering for a Serena Grand Slam

Serena Williams is on the brink of the grandest achievement in tennis, the single season Grand Slam, and even the leading men at the US Open championships starting on Monday are cheering her on.

The 33-year-old American, with the 2015 Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon trophies already on her crowded mantle, will be gunning to complete the first season’s sweep of the slams since Steffi Graf in 1988.

Victory at Flushing Meadows would lift Williams to 22 career grand slam singles crowns, tying her with Graf for second on the all-time list, two behind Margaret Court.

Rafa Nadal, a 14-times grand slam singles winner, was also absorbed by the historical bid by Williams, who has won the last three titles at Flushing Meadows and would register an Open era record seventh US crown with another triumph.

Williams would become the sixth player to register a Grand Slam following Don Budge (1938) and Laver (1962, 1969) on the men’s side and Maureen Connolly (1953), Court (1970) and Graf (1988).

Federer won three of the four slams in 2004, 2006 and 2007, falling short all three years in the French Open, losing in the ’06 and ’07 finals to nine-times Roland Garros winner Nadal.