Quote: YORK -- By the time Serena Williams pulled into New York for the US Open, she'd been trying to move into a tie with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert for the third-most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era for a year.

But after falling out of the Australian Open, then the French Open, then Wimbledon shockingly early, Williams finally decided it was a self-paradox that was killing her: The same blast-furnace desire that had driven her to the brink of achieving more tennis immortality was now preventing her from taking this historic next step.

And so, long before her final Sunday against Caroline Wozniacki, Williams adjusted.

[+] EnlargeSerena Williams
Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports
Serena Williams, who admitted the pressure of Grand Slam No. 18 got to her, has tied two all-time greats in major titles.
While everyone else kept trying to put her career in context in anticipation of Sunday's win -- including Evert, who unhesitatingly calls Williams the best female tennis player ever, even if Steffi Graf (22) or Margaret Court (24) has more Slam titles -- Williams spent the weeks leading up to this US Open chopping down how much it meant to her to finally get Grand Slam No. 18.

In private moments, Williams said, she had the same talk over and over with herself the past eight weeks or so about the sweep of her career: "Serena, you've done everything you needed to do. Just have fun and enjoy yourself."

Fun she had Sunday afternoon after a straight-sets triumph over Wozniacki to match the legends. 

In her public utterances, her take was the same. A couple of days before Sunday's match with Wozniacki, Williams laughed and said, "It's almost a joke for me because I have done little to no winning in the majors [this year]. So I thought, take it as a joke: 'Oh, my God, I'm past the fourth round. Woo! ... I better play doubles just in case I don't make it past the second round. At least I have a backup plan.' And I think that definitely has been able to help me to relax as well.

"I tend