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Chasing 24 – Serena Williams Poised to Rewrite Record Books

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Source: Statista

When Serena Williams faces off with her old rival and fellow mother Victoria Azarenka from Belarus on Thursday night, she won’t just be playing for a spot in the US Open final. Having won her last Grand Slam tournament in 2017, before giving birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Williams is looking to rewrite tennis history books by matching Margaret Court’s record 24 major titles.

Having surpassed Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era (post 1968) in 2017, Williams has had her eyes set on Court’s record for three years now, and at age 38 it’s unclear how much longer she’ll keep playing tennis professionally.

Aside from matching Margaret Court, winning a Grand Slam title as a mother would certainly be of special significance to Williams, who has been very outspoken about the difficulties of balancing parenthood and the life of a professional athlete.

American Interest in the Tour de France Wanes Sans Armstrong

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Source: Statista

As the 107th Tour de France got on its way on Saturday, barely anyone in the U.S. took notice. Rescheduled from its original June 27 start due to the pandemic, the most iconic cycling competition in the world is no longer frontpage news in the country that experienced a cycling boom in the early 2000s thanks to the success of a certain Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team.

As the following chart shows, American interest in “Le Tour” was closely linked to the success of Lance Armstrong. Google searches for “Tour de France” were cut in half between Armstrong’s last tour victory in 2005 and the first post-Armstrong tour in 2006. Interest continued to fade after that until the Texan’s return to the tour in 2009 sparked some interest once again.

Having confessed to systematic doping in 2012, Armstrong was stripped of all his seven Tour de France titles and given a lifetime ban by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sports global governing body.