For Serena Williams, Grand Slam dream keeps it interesting

Serena Williams added to one of the longest resumes in sports with the Sportsperson of the Year award from Sports Illustrated, becoming only the third individual woman to claim the honour since its inception in 1956.

For now, her focus is on winning another major tournament -not four in a row. Williams was two victories away from sweeping all four in the same year when she was stunned by Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals in September. Asked if the Grand Slam is a goal, Williams said: “Obviously, I've never done it.“

“I'm not putting any pressure... I'd have to have a good year in the beginning, win Australia, win French -I've only won the French three times, so that's going to be a little difficult to do.“

She logged a 53-3 record, reigned as world number one every week for the second successive year and took her total of grand slams to 21, one less than Steffi Graf for most in the Open Era, at an age when most players have retired. “I've been doing what I do for over 20 years pro fessionally and that's a long time to be playing,“ Williams said before Tuesday's awards dinner.“And this is the first time I was ever recognised as Sportsperson of the Year. So it really meant a lot to me. And being a woman and being only the third to be recognised is pretty awesome.“

“There's numbers,“ she said at the awards dinner, referencing Graf's 22 slams and the 24 singles titles won by all-time leader Margaret Court. “I never looked at numbers until recently. I want to at least try to reach a couple of numbers that I won't mention. Just go one at a time and hopefully will be there one day.“

Williams hasn't played competitively since the upset in New York. But her workouts are back to full throttle, and the 34-year-old said she woke up at 6 am Tuesday to train before catching a plane to New York to pick up her award.