The 2015 United States Tennis Open tournament is now underway, and like most tennis fans, I’ve got my eyes on women’s tennis great Serena Williams, as she attempts to make history by winning the tournament and achieving a calendar Grand Slam.

What are her chances of reaching the milestone?  Most tennis experts agree that Serena’s success will be dependent on two things – an intense individual effort (a given for Serena) and the results of the recent tournament draw, which identified Serena’s match calendar and which opponents she will face on her path to raising the winner’s trophy.

So, how does Serena’s approach to US Open tournament success relate to SAS?  Well, as SAS Certified, multiple credential holder Krystian Matusz revealed in this post, success with using SAS similarly requires making a concentrated individual effort to participate in scheduled learning opportunities to challenge yourself and grow as a SAS user.

If you’re interested in growing your SAS skills and are willing to make the effort, the newly announced SAS fall training schedule has new offerings in locations worldwide that will challenge you and help strengthen your skills. In addition, SAS is "serving up" a U.S. Fall Programming Tour with a total of 14 one-time only offerings of the SAS Programming 1 and 2 courses in these 7 cities: San Jose, Portland, Richmond, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Indianapolis.

Wondering whether you're up for the Fall SAS Programming Tour challenge?  Gauge your readiness by taking the Programming 1 Self-Assessment or the Programming 2 Self-Assessment.

When you think about the path to success with SAS, in one way, you’ve got it easier than Serena. You can determine your own draw.