AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2009: Women's Final Preview

Dinara Safina RUS (3)	Dinara Safina RUS (3)

For the fourth time in her career Serena Williams is in the final of the Australian Open, the first major tournament of the year. She has previously won the title in 2003 (over Venus Williams), 2005 (over Lindsay Davenport) and 2007 (over Maria Sharapova). Sharapova won the title over Ana Ivanovic last year, somewhat making up for the shellacking Serena had dealt her the year before. However, the defending champion is not here this year and with the mathematical inevitability indicated by the curious pattern of winning in every odd year this decade, the 9-time champion has been the overwhelming favorite to win her second consecutive Grand Slam title for the first time since she won all four in a row in 2003.

This time her opponent will be another Russian, although she's not "another 'ova" as the Americans once dismissed the large group of Russian and eastern European players years ago, she is Dinara ("no longer just Marat's little sister!") Safina. Whoever wins the match on Sunday will also receive the bonus of being crowned the World #1. Head-to-head, Serena has only lost to Safina once (last year) during the Russian's "dream tournament" in Berlin whens she beat (in successive rounds) Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Elene Dementieva to win her first Tier 1 title. Safina's brother won this title four years ago and she has been playing excellent tennis ever since her Berlin breakthrough. She did quite well to fend off a surprisingly stiff challenge from Vera Zvonareva in the Women's semis, winning 6-3 7-6(4).

In the other semifinal Serena was able to obain revenge for three consecutive losses against Dementieva by handing the vastly improved Russian her first loss of 2009 in three tournaments 6-3 6-4 relatively easily. She similarly dispatched Safina in the semifinals of the U.S. Open just over 4 months ago (how time flies!) and Saturday's final is very unlikely to have a different result.

Mad Professah's pick: Williams in 2 sets.