Five-star Serena rules down under
Source: Agencies |
January 31, 2010, Sunday
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SERENA Williams put an end to Justine Henin's hopes of a grand slam title on her return from retirement with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win in the Australian Open final yesterday.
Defending champion Williams withstood a determined challenge from Henin before securing her fifth Australian Open title and 12th grand slam singles championship overall.
Williams' five Australian titles is the most by any woman in the Open Era, since 1968, surpassing the four each held by Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.
Henin, who had most of the crowd support at Rod Laver Arena, couldn't match her fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters' feat of winning in her grand slam comeback tournament. Clijsters won last year's US Open on her return from a two-year retirement in which she got married and had a baby.
"It was definitely a tough match mentally and physically," Williams said. "We were both out there to prove something, and I think we both did at the end of the day."
Williams won the last four games at Melbourne Park yesterday to clinch the final in just over two hours, falling on her back in celebration after match point before shaking hands with Henin at the net.
"It's good to have her back, it's exciting," Williams said of Henin. "She can definitely be No. 1, especially with our ranking system, if she keeps doing well."
Still, it was an impressive run by Henin. She lost in the final of the Brisbane International tournament to Clijsters two weeks ago.
Henin saved two break points to hold for 3-3 in a four-game run in the second set, winning 13 of the last 14 points in a dominant finish to level at one-set apiece. She maintained the superiority early in the decider, increasing that to 18 of 19 points before Williams held serve to level the third set at 1-1.
Williams, with her right thigh and left knee heavily taped as it had been for much of the tournament, staged her own resurgence, breaking Henin in the next game to go up 2-1.
Henin broke Williams' serve in the next game, but the American broke back in the next to go up 3-2, a lead she never relinquished.
Williams' 12th singles major matched American great Billie Jean King's career total. King was at the stadium last night to take part in a pre-match ceremony to honor the 40-year anniversary of Court's four grand slam title wins in 1970.
"Billie, we are tied," Williams said. "So I've reached my goal."
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are Williams' next goal, with 18 majors each. "Honestly, I'm just doing what I can. I obviously enjoy playing in Melbourne, clearly," she said. "I never thought I could catch up with Martina, because she's such an amazing champion."
American twins Bob and Mike Bryan won their fourth Australian Open men's doubles title, beating Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the final.
The brothers have now won the title here four of the past five years and were losing finalists the two previous years. They have eight grand slam men's doubles titles, including two at the US Open and one each at the French Open and Wimbledon.
The men's final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray is today, when fifth-seeded Murray will attempt to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a grand slam major.
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