The Serena seal of approval can be both a blessing and a curse to the next American generation, but Madison Keys insists she is comfortable with compliments from the 21-time Grand Slam winner.
Williams has tipped her countrywoman as a potential world No.1, inadvertently adding to the pressure that is already heaped on the 21-year-old prospect’s shoulders.
But Keys is relishing the challenge but happy to take it one step at a time.
By beating Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro in the semi-final of the Aegon Classic Birmingham on Saturday, she will be a top-ten player when the rankings are published on Monday.
Should the seventh seed see off Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova in Sunday’s final, then Keys will also have collected her second Premier-level singles title and her second one on grass following her success at Eastbourne in 2014.
The 2015 Wimbledon quarter-finalist is setting her sights even higher, however.
“I'm not going to sit here and say I'm going to win Wimbledon, but obviously, I'd really like to,” Keys said after her tough 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 win over Suarez Navarro.
“I made the quarter-finals last year, so I feel like I've done well at Wimbledon. Obviously, the quarter-finals isn't what I want. I want more.
"So, yeah, I'm going to do whatever I can to try to achieve more. I've dealt with the pressure for a while. I think I've been pretty lucky the last couple years just because there's been so many other American players that have taken the spotlight at times. I think we've shared it, so I think that's been helpful.
“But I think in the last year or so, I've learned how to handle the outside opinions and pressures a lot better. It's great to hear (Serena’s comments) and I love that she thinks that seeing how successful she's been, but that just makes me work harder.”
Keys was made to work very hard indeed by Suarez Navarro, who raced through the first set. The American upped the tempo in the sixth game of the second set and forced a break courtesy of some lightning service returns.
She levelled the match with a booming ace to set up a fascinating finale against the sixth seed. An early break was wiped out when Keys had a minor wobble on her backhand and the inevitable tie break loomed. Suarez Navarro, the marathon woman of Edgbaston, finally ran out of steam on her fourth successive three-setter and a netted backhand gave Keys victory.
Keys added: “The first set was definitely a slow start for me. I felt like my energy was really low and not very positive.
“So it was a big thing for me just to come out and really be a lot more positive and have a high level of intensity and energy. If I was able to do that, and she beat me anyways, then too good from her.
“I would have been really disappointed in myself had I not been able to kind of at least change what I could on my side of the net.
“I was not very happy with my first set. I wasn't really even thinking I have to win two sets. It was more, ‘get yourself in the match and make it at least competitive’.”
Keys was denied an all-American final against CoCo Vandeweghe, whose eight-match winning streak on grass came to an end at the hands of Wimbledon 2014 quarter-finalist Strycova, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Vandeweghe had knocked out top seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the first round and seemed on course to win her semi as she took the first set.
Strycova, her right thigh strapped up, came back into it as a tearful Vandeweghe succumbed to her emotions as she was being talked to by coach Craig Kardon.
She explained: “I'm not really a crier, which is funny. I don't know. Just everything hit me all at once, just the build-up you could say. It wasn't one particular thing.
“It's an emotional game and emotional sport. I've been playing a lot of matches, a lot of tennis. A lot of things happen in every single match. Sometimes it just compounds.
"That's magnificent!" @CoCoVandey shows sensational touch at the net for the #AegonClassic Shot of the Day!https://t.co/Ry9VxoFWVy
— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) June 18, 2016
“We're all human. I definitely showed it out there. Craig was trying to talk to me a little bit as I stretched out and cooled down of how proud he was of me and everything like that.
“I'm still pretty much a bottle of emotions right now, so I didn't take any of it in. I've never achieved anything like this, of winning a tournament and then coming back the next week and performing again, especially at a premier event.”
Strycova, who was also in successful semi-final doubles action on Saturday, admitted: “It was a rollercoaster. I just had to hang in there. I tried to fight every point I could and it turned to my side.”
The Czech, with partner Karolina Pliskova, beat Britain’s Naomi Broady and Heather Watson 6-2, 6-4 and play Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-2, 6-1 winners against Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan.
