Melbourne — Serena Williams says her rise to become perhaps the greatest player of all time is all down to mental strength and never giving up, a trait learned from Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. The dominant American now holds more Grand Slam titles in the Open era than anyone else, after surpassing Graf’s 22 by winning the Australian Open final against her sister, Venus, on Saturday. Navratilova has 18, along with Chris Evert, while Margaret Court has 24, but only 11 of those were won after the more competitive Open era began in 1968. Williams said they all had one thing in common — fighting spirit. "One thing about a champion, they keep fighting, they keep going," said the 35-year-old, whose 6-4, 6-4 win at Melbourne Park also returned her to world number one. "I just feel like those four really are incredible fighters. They’re mentally tough as well. They always kept going. "It’s something that I learned from them a lot, is how to hopefully do the same, which hopefully I’v...
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