America
Serena wins Australian Open title
Melbourne, Jan 31
American star Serena
Williams held off a determined Maria Sharapova of Russia to win her
sixth Australian Open title and the 19th Grand Slam title of her career,
separating herself from Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the
second-most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era.
The No.1-seeded Williams recorded a straight sets 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over the No.2-seeded Sharapova.
Going
into the final, Williams was the favourite - not just because she was
World No.1 and Sharapova No.2, but because she had won the pair's last
15 clashes, 12 of those coming in straight sets.
Early on in the
match that pattern continued, with Williams breaking in the very first
game and, after a short rain delay, grabbing a second break for 5-2.
Sharapova got one of the breaks back in the next game but Williams broke one last time to take the first set 6-3.
All
of that went out of the window in the second set, as the top 2 players
in the world held tightly to all of their service games, with absolutely
no breaks of serve - Williams did have her chance to finish the match
with Sharapova serving at 4-5, 30-40, the first match point of the
night, but the Russian bludgeoned a forehand down the line for a winner
and subsequently held that service game.
The tie-break was tight
but Williams forged ahead, building a 6-4 lead, and after Sharapova
fought off a second match point with another huge forehand down the
line.
Williams had the match on her racquet, stepping up to the
baseline to serve on match point No.3. There was a bit of a hiccup - she
fired what looked like a massive ace out wide, and she even began
celebrating, but the serve was called a let. But she regrouped and fired
the exact same ace to finally close it out.
Williams came into
the Australian Open tied with Evert and Navratilova for the second-most
Grand Slam titles in the Open Era, but she now has the stand-alone
second-most with 19. Steffi Graf has 22.