..And yes for all I know Serena’s racket must be still smoking a couple of days after that incredible final!
“She smoked her,'” said Serena’s hitting partner, Mark Hiawaly. “It was unbelievable. She’s serving bigger than in the past, she hitting some around 200 Km and is serving very accurate. She took away time from Maria by standing inside the court and fending off the pace. Whenever she moves forward, that’s when she’s playing her best.”
After watching Serena Williams completely, demolish, neutralize, demoralize and humiliate Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open final 2007, 6-1 6-2 one is left wondering, where is the typical;
“We are better now, we are faster, we hit the ball harder, Steffi Graff or Pete Sampras would not have a chance today….”. Imagine Serena did not play for almost 2 years and did such trashing! Wouldn’t this apply to exceptional players from other eras? I believe yes!
Yes, it would certainly apply to, Pancho Gonzales, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Margaret Court, Lew Hoad, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Maria Ester Bueno, Billy Jean King, Steffi Graf and many, many others! But I rather leave that discussion for another time and focus on the fantastic performance Serena achieved on this final.
Contrary to what happened in the men’s semi-final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer, where Andy is much at fault for making Roger look good. In this women’s final Serena Williams put an awesome display of power, aggression and absolute pressure that resulted in total domination.
Maria Sharapova despite trying hard, was reduced to a spectator in a match where from return winner, to winning forehands, backhands, or volleys, mercilessly zipped her by! Maria rarely had a chance to get into a rally and when she succeeded to win one point, she would lose the next two.
The statistics show us how devastating and one sided the final was:
o Williams served at 69 per cent throughout the match against 51 per cent to Sharapova, and won 79 per cent of those successful serves to 67
o Sharapova served six double faults to two
o Williams finished with 28 winners to 12
o Sharapova committed 13 unforced errors to 11
o Williams converted 4-of-6 break points to 0-of-2
o Williams also won 53 per cent of the points when receiving to 27
o Williams won 60 points in total to 35
There is nothing else to say but, to congratulate Serena Williams for probably the most fantastic tennis performance on a Grand Slam women’s final in modern tennis!
If you want a role model for guts, fighting spirit, perseverance, focus, grit, athleticism, clear thinking under pressure, winning spirit you need not to go any further, look up to Serena Williams!
Enjoy your tennis!