TORONTO — Back to being the most dominant women's tennis player in the world, Serena Williams holds all four Grand Slam trophies at the same time, the second "Serena Slam" of her career.
Yet she has one more career achievement ahead of her. After already winning the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2015, Williams is another U.S. Open title away from being just the fourth woman to earn a calendar-year Grand Slam.
Before she gets to Flushing Meadows, though, Williams has a hard-court tune-up at the Rogers Cup in Toronto starting Aug. 10.
"This will be a good opportunity for me to get some matches under hard court and try to go forward with just winning some matches there and getting ready for the U.S. Open, which I'm defending that title, so hopefully I'll be able to do that," Williams said on a conference call Thursday.
Williams won the Rogers Cup each of the past two times it was held in Toronto, in 2013 and 2011, and called it one of her favourite places to play.
Now 33, Williams is again ranked No. 1 and is playing some of the best tennis of her life. But according to her, her game is just "OK."
"I'm just playing some of my best mental tennis," Williams said. "But I feel like my actual tennis I could play a lot better."
Her actual tennis appears to be just fine. Williams lost only two sets in winning Wimbledon and is primed to capture her seventh U.S. Open.
Trying not to be overconfident, she said being too comfortable makes players more "susceptible to losing." Along the same lines, Williams is attempting not to think about the history she's approaching.
Her focus was first on winning all four Grand Slams in a row, the so-called "Serena Slam" that she also completed in 2002-03.
"Once I felt like I could win four in a row, I felt like I would be fine," Williams said. "Just holding all four trophies at the same time, two times in one career, I'm not sure that's been done so often. For me, that is really pretty awesome."
Williams became the fifth woman to do that, joining Maureen Connolly Brinker, Margaret Court, Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. The calendar-year Grand Slam is even rarer, completed by Connolly Brinker in 1953, Court in 1970 and Graf in 1988.
At the Rogers Cup, Williams is part of a field that includes the other top 25 players in the world, including sister Venus and also Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, who's 26th. There's so much depth that Williams knows she can't underestimate any opponent.
"It's not easy," she said. "You've got to enjoy the challenge and get ready for it. I'm up for it, and I'm usually excited to see what happens."
With 21 Grand Slam titles, she's one shy of Graf's Open Era record and three short of Court's all-time mark. At Wimbledon, Williams became the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam, and she's showing no signs of slowing down.
"I love to be able to do the best that I can and win," Williams said. "Whether I'm 20 or 18 or 6 or 30 or 80, for me it's going to be all the same. I feel like I appreciate it more, but I really don't feel and act my age, so I'm feeling pretty good."
Going into the summer season, Williams is nervous as always but focused. She thinks the best thing she's got going is feeling like there's nothing to lose.
"I just have to go there and maintain and do the best that I can do," Williams said. "That's a unique position to be in, and I'm really happy to be in that position."
