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Saturday, 28 January 2017
Australian Open: Serena Williams beats sister Venus for record 23rd slam title
Serena Williams is the most prolific grand slam winner of the open era in women’s tennis after claiming her 23rd major singles title with a 6-4, 6-4 win over her sister Venus at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. This triumph also made Serena a seven-time winner of the Australian Open, while Venus had to be content with offering a reminder that her own greatness remains very much in the present tense.
Whatever the result of this finale a record was going to tumble. Venus – 36 years old, nine years on from her last grand slam triumph and playing in her 73rd major tournament – stood a chance of becoming the oldest champion of the open era. The woman who remains the record-holder now? Well, Serena, of course.
This was the ninth time the sisters had met in a grand slam final. Eight years on from their last together, it was also surely the least likely of all. The early stages showed inside knowledge counts for plenty. Serena broke in the first game of the match by guessing correctly, or perhaps just outright intuiting, that her sister would go wide to her forehand with a smash at the net. Not only did Serena retrieve it, she sent a quite sensational winner fizzing past Venus.
That set a pattern – the first four games of the match were all
breaks. Throughout the tournament Serena’s weapons-grade first serve had
been such a calling card she hadn’t dropped a set, nor faced a
tiebreak, but now she was getting a taste of her own medicine as Venus
attacked with relish.
Venus held first, sitting dead still and staring fiercely ahead at
the changeover. It had been a slightly surreal opening 25 minutes of the
contest. For many in the Melbourne crowd there was a genuine unreality
about it all. By the third game – at the insistence of an agitated
Serena, who frustratedly snapped a racket – they had to be reminded by
the chair umpire to stay silent during points.
Once both players had finally held, Serena made her move, breaking in
the seventh game of the first set and then holding with a looping
forehand winner. She closed it out 6-4 in 41 minutes, and by then led
for aces (7-4) and winners (16-11), and was dealing better with being
worked around the court by her savvy and experienced opponent.
Early in the second set it stayed on serve, Serena holding with
conviction. But she met with plenty of roadblocks she hadn’t encountered
in her marauding run through the rest of the draw. The third game was
ample demonstration of everything remarkable about Venus’s run. She
saved three break points before advancing to the net and clattering a
forehand winner that ignited the stadium.
The seventh game proved decisive, containing both the most gripping
rally of the match, which Serena won, and also the first successful
break of the second set, which Serena also claimed. She was on the path
to victory, but Venus made her work until the very last.
After one last rally for the ages, which Venus won to pile on the
pressure at 15-30, Serena finally served it out in an hour and 22
minutes, dropping to the ground and then embracing her sister in the
middle of the court she had dominated so thoroughly all week.
There was a certain symmetry at play in all of this. It was here at
Melbourne Park where the sisters first faced each other in a grand slam
match, way back in 1998, when a win to Venus hit newspaper front pages
worldwide. Rod Laver Arena is also where they contested their only
shared three-set grand slam final, in 2003. Serena got that one.
Likewise, Serena further confirmed her rare distinction in the game:
to be equally great in the time before and after turning 30 – an
especially remarkable achievement in a sport that historically favours
youth and renewal. Now she steps past Steffi Graf and into a spot in
open-era history all her own, where she belongs.
Both winner and loser were champions, their glory unquestioned. Venus
had alluded to this possibility in the lead-up to this match. “People
relate to the champion,” she said. “They also relate to the person also
who didn’t win because we all have those moments in our life.” But now, Serena Williams
is Australian Open champion again, and her sister did indeed experience
that difficult moment she’d forewarned. Equally, the rest of us were
reminded that when she is finally done with big-time tennis, Venus
Williams will be the one to let us know.
Credit: theguardian.com
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