Serena Williams would not debate the incidents that unrolled during the US Open final she lost to Naomi Osaka in September and is picking to “move on to bigger and better things”, the American told the reporters in Abu Dhabi. In her first appearance in court since the controversial final in New York, Williams lost an exhibition match to her sister Venus 4-6,6-3,10-8 in the UAE capital and will now lead straight to Perth for completing in the Hopman Cup alongside her countryman Frances Tiafoe.

While Serena had been asked about US Open final is a topic she would like to avoid as the new season kicks off, Serena said, “I don’t avoid anything. I just don’t have time to talk about that. I talked about it, everyone talked about it for months and months and months and it’s best to move on to bigger and better things.”

Bigger and better things are certainly on Serena’s mind as she acknowledged earlier in the day , the importance of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 titles from Grand Slam while it comes to her goals for 2019.

Twicely Williams missed a chance to tie Court’s remark in 2018, losing both the Wimbledon and US Open finals in the span of the last six months.

The major champion of 23 times and with the experience of playing in seven events since her return from maternity leave in March , will be pursuing history once again at the Australian Open in January.

Serena said, “(The number 24) has always been significant since I got 22, then 23. It’s something that I clearly want but I have to be able to get there and beat a lot of good players to get it ”.

Serena said, “My fitness, I feel like I’m pretty fit. I was running and running and never got tired except for one point but then I got over it in 20 seconds, so I think that was really the highlight for me”.

Venus said, “I love everyone that I work with, and I still love them, so it’s just all love. I haven’t brought on anyone yet, so we’ll see what happens ”.