In her new home in Los Angeles, Serena Williams has a karaoke room and a gentlemen’s lounge.
But she’s running out of room for her tennis trophies.
“I don’t have any more space,” said Williams, who has won 39 career singles titles and 20 more in doubles. “I would love to keep winning them. But we’re like, ‘OK, what are we going to do with this one?'”
If she can win three more matches this week, Williams will have to make room for another U.S. Open trophy and an oversized check for $1 million for winning the U.S Open summer series and the Open itself.
“As I said even before the match, I think she’s the favorite for the tournament,” said No. 16 Ana Ivanovic after losing to Serena in the fourth round Monday, 6-3, 6-4. “She’s been playing really well, and it’s gonna be tough, you know.”
Even Spike Lee, who sat in Serena’s player’s box for the match, is picking the No. 28 seed to win her 14th career major title.
“She’s gonna win,” Lee told CBSSports.com.
After years of backing the winless Knicks, Lee hope he’s finally supporting a champion in Williams.
“I’m a Miami Heat fan and Dolphins fan,” Serena said. “I support the Heat. He supports the Knicks. We always argue about that one.”
Next up for Serena in the quarterfinals is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a hard-hitting, 20-year-old Russian seeded No. 17. That match is scheduled for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
After that, Serena could potentially meet top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the semis. Wozniacki has been No. 1 in the world for 46 straight weeks, but is still seeking her first career Grand Slam singles title.
Serena may be seeded No. 28 due to injury, illness and inactivity, but virtually everyone agrees she’s the best player in the world when healthy.
“Subconsciously, in the back of my head, I’m a person that really hates to lose,” said Serena, 29. “I put a lot of work into this. A loss would be disappointing.’
Oh yeah, and what exactly goes on in that karaoke room?
“My favorite thing to karaoke is definitely Rihanna,” Serena said. “She is my favorite artist to karaoke.
“We’ve sung till 8:00 in the morning. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, the sun’s coming out. We keep singing and singing and singing and singing. It’s magical.”
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter @AdamZagoria.
