Serena Williams has won both the Series and US Open titles each of the last two years.
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By E.J. Crawford
Serena Williams is running out of ways to compete against even the best players in the history of tennis. Now she’s just topping herself.
Williams won her sixth US Open singles title this year, matching Chris Evert for the most in the Open era. The victory also gave Serena 18 Grand Slam singles titles, tying her with Evert and Martina Navratilova for the second-most in the Open era, trailing only the 22 won by Steffi Graf.
In doing so, she completed a sweep of the Emirates Airline US Open Series and US Open titles for a second consecutive year. In 2014, that earned her a record $4 million payday – $3 million as the US Open champion and $1 million in bonus prize money as the Open and Series winner.
The previous record was $3.6 million, won at last year’s US Open by both Rafael Nadal and, yes, Serena herself.
This marks the third time that the Series women’s champion has also won the US Open. In addition to Serena the last two years, Kim Clijsters accomplished the feat in 2005. Men who swept the Series and the Open in the same year are Nadal in 2013 and Roger Federer in 2007.
The 2014 Series men’s champion, Milos Raonic, lost in five sets in the fourth round of the US Open to eventual finalist Kei Nishikori.