Monday, September 08, 2008

US OPEN 2008: Serena Wins 9th Major Over Jankovic



Serena Williams won her ninth major title on Sunday night, by defeating World #2 Jelena Jankovic 6-4 7-5 in a 2 hour 4 minute match that was filled with very long points and very close games. With the win, Serena will again become #1 in the WTA Tour rankings, more than 5 years after she last held the ranking for 57 consecutive weeks.

Serena did not serve well, having 3 aces (same as her opponent) and 3 double faults, and her average second serve was even slower than Jankovic's, whose serve is considered one of the glaring weaknesses in her game.

The TV commentators characterized the match-up as "the puncher versus the counter-puncher" but really it was more about offense versus defense. In that respect, Serena gave us a very different look at her game. She was extremely patient, pretty much content to keep hitting with Jankovic until she sense an opening and then she would unleash a punishing groundstroke to get her opponent off balance and put away the weak reply at the net.

In both sets Serena was down a pretty early break. In the first set she came out attempting to blast the ball past Jankovic and made 10 unforced errors in the first 2 games, finding herself down 1-2. She then calmed down and won 3 games in a row but Jankovic broke back and held until she was serving 4-5 when she lost her serve and the first set on Serena's first set point.

In the second set, Serena had numerous chances to break Jankovic's serve, but the Serb kept winning the breakpoints, eventually forcing Serena to go 0-for-10 and broke Serena instead in the seventh game and held to be up 5-3. Serena seemed out of sorts and was quickly down 0-40 facing three consecutive breakpoints that were set points. She somehow managed to win that game, saved two more set points and won every game for the rest of the match--four in a row.

She is now tied with Monica Seles on the Grand Slam singles list, and (more importantly to her, I think) still maintains her edge of two more titles than her big sister. It is the third year since they both had their career nadirs in 2004 that both Williams sisters have won major titles in the same year, 2005, 2007 and 2008. And Serena Williams is back on top of Women's tennis, with her sister Venus relatively close behind at #8. Right where they should be.

1 comment:

MK DAMODARAN said...

Serena Williams was born on 26th.She is now 26 years old.she has captured her 9th Major and number 1 ranking.
M.K.DAMODARAN

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