Wimbledon Queen has eyes on "King"

Wimbledon champion Serena Williams wants more than her current 11 Grand Slam singles titles, and has Billie Jean King in her sights.

Williams beat her older sister Venus 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 to take her third title at the All England Club in London. “For the second time in my career, I have a number I want to reach,” Serena Williams said in an interview at Wimbledon before Sunday’s men’s final. “My first number was reaching Monica Seles, and I was finally able to do that. Now, I’m looking at Billie Jean King.”

Seles won nine majors -- four in Australia, three at Roland Garros and two U.S. Opens. King won 12 Grand Slam singles championships. The list is headed by Margaret Court Smith’s 24 titles. Serena, 27, is preparing for the U.S. Open, where she’s won three times, including her first major 10 years ago.

Serena now holds three of the four majors -- Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, with Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova taking the French Open. Williams lost in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, derailing her chance for a calendar Grand Slam.

“I’m really disappointed because I think this was the year that I could have done it, and I didn’t.” she said. “I had the biggest chance to win all four in my career, and I just screwed up.”

Her goal is to win the U.S. Open starting at the end of August, and next year’s Australian Open, putting her in line to win her self-dubbed “Serena Slam” by holding all four titles, but in a different calendar year, she said. She last completed that sweep at the 2003 Australian Open.

“My goal now is to win and keep winning until I get to the French, and then I’ll have another Serena Slam,” she said.