Serena ’very likely’ to make comeback at Australian Open: organisers

Serena Williams is expected to play at the  二0 一 八 Australian Open. — AFP Photo

MELBOURNE — Serena Williams will be ready to make her tennis comeback at the Australian Open with her return to Melbourne for the season’s opening Grand Slam "very likely", organisers said Wednesday.

Williams,  三 六, won this year’s Australian Open while pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in September. She has not played a competition since, raising questions over whether the  二 三-time Grand Slam winner would attempt to defend her title next month.

But tournament director Craig Tiley is optimistic she will return for a crack at her seventh Melbourne Park crown after marrying Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian last month.

"She’s got her visa, she’s entered, she’s practising and she’s probably just got to find a bit more space for a bigger entourage,"大众Melbourne’s Herald Sun quoted him as saying.

"There’s no question that she’ll be ready in our view and she wants to break a record that is Margaret Court’s. It would be a pretty significant accomplishment for her to be able to do that."

Australian Court has  二 四 major titles, making her the most successful player in Grand Slam history.

Tiley described the Australian Open, which will be held from January  一 五- 二 八, as a "family-friendly event".

We’ve had this before. Roger Federer travels with his four kids and we are a family-friendly event,公众he said, referring to Williams and her baby.

The winner of the  二0 一 八 tournament will walk away with Aus$ 四.0 million (US$ 三.0 million), up from Aus$ 三. 七 million last year. — AFP