Cape Town - A nagging shoulder injury could upset Serena Williams' history-making bid at this year's US Open.
The American was living the dream at this year's Wimbledon, where she won her 22nd major championship, putting her tie with the current record holder Stefanie Graf. As she enters the US Open, Williams is the hot favourite and thus poised to make history by going one up on Graf's Open Era record.
But Williams may not play her way into the history books as easily as she would like, after she started feeling pain in her shoulder just 24 hours after her Wimbledon victory.The injury caused her to withdraw from the Rogers Cup as well as the Western & Southern Open. It also contributed to her third round loss at the Rio Olympics.
"At the end of the day I knew I gave the best effort I could, and it just wasn't enough," the 34-year-old told Yahoo Sports.
"For the, Olympics I just practiced two days before playing my match. It's not ideal, but it was all I could do."
The world number one's first obstacle on her path to history is Russia's Ekaterina Makarova, who is one half of the women's doubles Olympic Gold medalist team and was her opponent in the 2014 semi-finals.
Makarova and her partner Elena Vesnina are only the third team to win a womens doubles Olympic Gold since 2000, which is when Serena and her sister Venus Williams began dominating, winning the event three times.
The 2014 champion knows that her first match is going to be no walk in the park."I know she's a good player," continued Williams."I've just got to do the best I can. She's a big fighter. She never really stops. I think one thing I think that's pretty impressive is she gets a lot of balls back. You think she's not super quick, but she is."Even with the injury concerns, Williams had a quiet confidence about her in the press. Will Serena have what it takes to claim the US Open victory and propel herself into the record books, or will her shoulder injury put the dream on the backburner?