Serena Williams routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 Saturday to win the Australian Open
for her 10th Grand Slam title and a return to the No. 1 ranking.
It was total domination for the second-seeded Williams, who looked at ease in winning back-to-back majors — she won the U.S. Open championship in September — and was moving fluidly on the court.
“I absolutely, clearly, love playing here,” the 27-year-old Williams said. “You guys root for me so much. I don’t get that everywhere. So thank you so much.”
Williams’ near-perfect performance was in sharp contrast to No. 3 Safina, who was tight from the start. Later apologizing to the crowd for her performance, Safina said Williams was just too good, leaving her feeling like a ballboy.
In the first game, Safina double-faulted three times, including on break point. Williams ran off 18 of the last 20 points in the first set to finish it in 22 minutes.
It was Williams’ second overwhelming victory in a final at Melbourne Park, where she kept alive her record of winning in odd-numbered years since 2003 for four titles. Coming into the 2007 tournament unseeded after being plagued by injuries the year before, she beat top-seeded Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2.
If that wasn’t enough, Serena and Venus did their thing as a team and won the doubles championship as well:
Serena Williams was happy to have sister Venus on her side of the net Friday so she didn’t have to try to fend off those wicked volleys.
Their doubles title — their third at the Australian Open and eighth Grand Slam title as a combination — came at the expense of Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, who lost 6-3, 6-3 and had to dodge a number of stinging shots at the net, particularly from Venus.
“I just wouldn’t want to face them too much. They are ferocious,” Serena said of her sister’s shots. The sisters have faced each other in seven Grand Slam singles finals.
“She’s covering the whole net. At one point today, I literally stood back and she took care of everything.”
No comments:
Post a Comment