Billie Jean King: Serena Williams Should Use Shutdown to Work on her Fitness

• Tennis News
• Serena Williams

Tennis legend Billie Jean King says 23 time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams should take the current tennis shutdown as a positive and work on her fitness so that she is ready to compete when the tour resumes. Speaking to CNN, King, a 12 time Grand Slam champion and founding member of the WTA Tour, says, "I think you have to look at it as a positive in that you have to figure out what you need to do." "The one thing when you're an older player is you have to be more fit than you ever thought possible.

I played until I was 40." "And I remember sometimes playing against a player that was half my age. So you have to be extremely, extremely fit and if I were Serena with this time off I would enjoy my baby daughter and my husband but I would also be, absolutely just from a physical point of view, driving myself and being absolutely disciplined to be so fit ...

so when the tournaments start up again you definitely can be ready." Serena is chasing the 24 Grand Slam singles title record set by Margaret Court. She is one behind Court right now - and has lost in the final four Grand Slam finals that she has reached.

Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou has said that Serena wants to not only tie but break the record of Court. At the Australian Open in January, she reached the third round losing to China's Wang Qiang. Williams turns 39 years old in September.