Venus Williams remains driven to prolong her accomplished career after losing to younger sister Serena in the Australian Open final.
The 36-year-old fell to a 6-4 6-4 defeat on Saturday night as Serena landed an unprecedented seventh Australian Open title and an open-era record 23rd grand slam singles crown.
Venus had walked onto the court as the oldest finalist at Melbourne Park in the 49-year open era.
But despite leaving empty-handed, Venus says she will attack the rest of the year with renewed vigour after surpassing expectations by reaching her first grand slam decider since Wimbledon in 2009.
The elder Williams sister has been battling Sjogren’s syndrome – a debilitating auto-immune disease – since 2011, and few had given the former world No.1 any hope of adding to her seven singles slams.
“It’s a great start to the year. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year,” Venus said.
“I didn’t lose a set until the semi-finals. Played against a lot of players who were in form. So it’s a good thing.
“(I’m) ready to kill it this year. That’s my goal. Of course I feel motivated to continue … there’s only things I can improve on, to be honest, and to build on.”
A humble Venus acknowledged her place in one of sport’s greatest stories, saying it had been “momentous” to have the opportunity to compete against her sister in a ninth grand slam final.
“I don’t think we’re going for the greatest story in sports. We’re just going for some dreams,” she said.
“In the case that we are, what an honour. What an honour.”
Venus will climb six spots to No.11 in the world when the WTA rankings are revised on Monday.
Five months shy of her 37th birthday, Venus confirmed she would skip next month’s Fed Cup national team tournament to ensure she remained in top shape for singles competition.
“I adore playing Fed Cup. It’s such an awesome experience to be on a team,” she said.
“But also at this stage in my career, it’s very challenging to add extra weeks.
“To me, it’s about an endurance race now, so I have to be very careful about that.”
