Serena Williams claimed her place in tennis’s illustrious
history books, as she joined Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert with 18 Grand
Slam titles.
The top seeded American powered her way to third straight US
Open, in a fortnight where she never came close to dropping a set, let alone a
match. She went into the final with her good friend and rival Caroline
Wozniacki as the heavy favourite, 1 hour and 15 minutes later she had once
again emerged the victor in typical Williams fashion.
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| Williams wins her third US Open in a row |
Just like the six players before her Wozniacki was simply
blown away by Williams’ lethal attack, the American’s hammering forehand and
thundering serve helped tear down the Dane’s so often stern defence in a
ruthless 6-3 6-3 victory.
Every second serve that dropped short, Williams punished it.
Every extended rally which appeared to be materialising into a trademark
Wozniacki point, the world number one quickly extinguished it. In the end it
was one of those days when it didn’t matter who was on the other side of the
net.
The pair had gone the distance in recent matches in Cincinnati
and Montreal but in truth Wozniacki never really looked like repeating those occasions
in a match which many pundits described as “on Serena’s racquet”. After saving
a break point with an ace in the opening game Williams broke the Dane’s serve
straight away, even at that early stage Wozniacki’s task appeared a vast one.
In an uncharacteristic Williams service game Wozniacki broke
straight back and the pattern of breaking serve continued as the next three
games went against the server. It was then that the American seized control;
she hauled herself to a 5-2 lead, the set soon followed, and she stormed into a
position she has only lost from once in her US Open history.
Despite the Dane’s efforts that statistic never looked like
changing as Williams broke serve once again in the first game of the second
set, from then on her own reliable serve did the rest.
Williams wasn’t broken in the remainder of the match as
Wozniacki had no answer to the gulf in power between the two players, the Dane
couldn’t impose her physical and demanding game on the world number one, every
time she tried the ball was swept away for another winner from the top seed.
To her credit Wozniacki held her own serve with greater ease
in the second set however the American remained in full control and served out
the match to seal her sixth title in New York. The only record which seems left
to surpass is Steffi Graf’s 22 major titles, with Williams still at the head of
the game it may not be beyond her.
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