Newly-Crowned Australian Open champion Serena Williams warns she is ready to take her game to a new level and wants the world number one spot after demolishing current holder Maria Sharapova.In an ominous message to rivals on the women’s tour, Williams said she was capable of improving on the awesome performance that left Sharapova on the wrong end of a 6-1, 6-2 battering in the final here yesterday.The 25-year-old American was already eyeing the French Open, just hours after winning her third Australian title to take her Grand Slam singles titles to eight.“I’m ready for the clay courts,” she said. “I want to go home, I saw some things here I want to work on, to share with my dad. I want ameliorate it, ameliorate my game, take it to a new level. I’m ready to do that now, ready to take my game to a new level.”Such talk would have been dismissed before the season-opening Grand Slam, where Williams was unseeded and ranked 81 in the world, but she has proved as good as her word throughout the Melbourne tournament.Williams, the first unseeded player to win the crown since 1978, correctly predicted on the eve of the final that she would crank her game up another notch against Sharapova.“I finally played it for the first time this whole tournament. That’s the way I play,” she said. “You know, when I’m staying close to the baseline, I’m playing that way, aggressive. That’s the way I was raised. My mum and dad taught me to play that game of tennis. For some reason, I stay on the baseline. “But that was Serena that I’ve been trying to showcase for years and years. “When I’m playing well, it’s difficult for anyone to beat me because I have a unique style. I have a unique game. “Tennis is what I think I was born to do.”Williams said she had a tough road to the final, twice coming back from a set down and playing herself into form as the tournament progressed. “I’ve done well,” she said. “I’ve had blisters, I’ve been sick, I had diarrhoea, and I’m still in the final.”While Williams’ self-belief has been unwavering throughout the tournament, she admitted there were times during an injury plagued 2006 — when her ranking dropped to 140 — that she doubted her ability to come back. “There’s always times out there where you think ‘am I ever going to be looking at another trophy?’,” she said.“Especially since I hadn’t won a tournament, let alone a Grand Slam. I hadn’t won a tournament in a long time. “You’re thinking ‘wow, will there be another time?’”Williams said she wanted to regain the number one spot. “I’d love to be number one and beating Maria on a regular basis,” she said. “She’s number one, she’s consistent, she’s either winning or in the final or semi-final and that’s what it takes to be number one. That’s what I would have to do.”Williams added that she expected Sharapova to come back at her hard, and said there would be plenty of other challengers lining up to have a shot at her.“I know someone whose name is not Sharapova, like some other ‘ova,’ and they’re 12 years old in Russia, or wherever they’re from, and they are playing hard to get ready for me,” she said.
