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Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams 7-6(3), 6-2 on Centre Court to win her third Wimbledon title. She become the first player in history to win the title 6 years after she held her last Venus Rosewater Dish aloft. With her first major on a surface other than hard courts in the same time span, she is now also the owner of three of the four Slams for the second time in her career.
Though the final lacked the flow of last year's affair, it included some enthralling rallies. But Serena's serve made all the difference. With incredible disguise and placement, she only lost 8 points on serve over the entire match.
Venus, who wasn't tested at all throughout the fortnight, didn't face a decent server and was never pushed to the loss of more than 5 games in a set. This lack of a challenge did her no favors in the first set tiebreak. While her sister played flawlessly in tennis' ultimate head-to-head, Venus was tentative and when Serena's lob sailed over her head and landed inside the baseline, the match was all but over. But Venus fought off three championship points in the final set before dropping serve and losing the coveted title.
Serena won the match of the tournament in her semifinal on Thursday, so it was fitting she be rewarded with her long-awaited third Wimbledon title today.
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25 comments:
Craig, here's another stat for you:
Serena becomes the first player in women's tennis history to save match point en route to a Grand Slam title three times, having done so at the 2003 Australian Open (against Kim Clijsters in the semifinals), the 2005 Australian Open (against Maria Sharapova in the semifinals) and here at 2009 Wimbledon (saving a match point down 5-4 in the third set en route to a 67(4) 75 86 win over Elena Dementieva in the semifinals).
An anti-climactic final, mainly because V lost :( Was it because of lack of challenge, or has Venus been uncharacteristically slow?
I hope her knee isn't serious. WTA needs Venus; the classiest player.
Congrats to Serena of course.
Charags, I think Venus will rest her knee after this event.
She'll be back.
Pamela, that stat you posted says it all.
I am glad to see that others agree that Venus was clearly hampered in her movement (and it may have affected her serve) in today's match.
That's not to take anything away from Serena--she put on an amazing display... 25 winners to only 13 unforced errors (12 aces included in the winner number to no double faults). Serena was the better
I knew it was gonna be a bad day for Venus when she started with a double fault in the first point of the match!!
Venus' movement has been hampered all tournament. I've watched her in the double as well. But before today, she didn't play anybody that could make her run that much, forcing her to the ground to retrieve shots, putting more pressure on her knee.
And since she never dropped a set, she never had to deal with the mental challenge of coming from behind or playing three sets to win a match on a painful knee.
That said, despite the scorelines of her previous matches, Venus had several second set lapses in the earlier rounds when she had to rely of shaky second serves to get by. She just wasn't playing anybody who could make her pay for them.
Mary Carillo said it best even before this final. Nobody played better tennis than Serena this fortnight.
Uh Oh.. what with the excitement of the Williams' Wimbley finals and my first run since I came to USA a year ago, I plain forgot to say...
Happy Independence Day!
So, so happy for Serena! If only Roger could have won the AO and if he can win the final tomorrow, it would be three slams out of the last four with both my faves winning at the same time!
@Pamela -
Great stat....
Curious, I thought Serena saved matchpoint against Peer in 2007?
Never mind - she was 2 pts from defeat against Peer.
I wonder how many times venus has done it..... I know she saved (3?) MPs against davenport in 2005
Serena does look hot...
damn those BBC n00bs.
charags, how did you do in your race?
So the ranking thing came up again.......
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/articles/2009-07-04/200907041246727086671.html
Probably better that Serena be reticent but of course she isn't.
Question for you guys - isn't the ROADMAP esp the Indian Wells Persecution the real reason for Serena's ranking problems. The zero is very difficult to overcome. If it were last year's scoring system (i.e. the one used until justine "retired") would there be such a huge discrepancy between her points and Safina's? I wish someone would bring that up...... In order to keep #1 she basically would have had to win everything besides IW this winter/spring....
partly it might have been venus movement -- however - it was also partly at how INTENSE serena was and what I saw was that - in the second set - serena NEVER LET UP from the very beginning and this was rather SHOCKING EVEN to Venus her sister.
I mean: I AM a very close observer of their playing as much as anyone can claim - and even *I* was very surprised at serena's INTENSITY today.
it was like i've seldom , if EVER, seen her.
it was just ......TOO MUCH! combined with such PRECISION in her power. my good lord!
but over-all - from BOTH - this was HIGH QUALITY - extremely top-quality shotmaking from both players.
towards the end Venus showed some SUPERB grass court form when she took the mid and front court a bit more than in the beginning of the second set - as if "suddenly recalling" THIS is HER court too and in the net game she really has no peer - not even her baby sister.
but that was a bit late ...and we know how serena -- when she wants her older sis' lollipop too........she won't be DENIED!!
hehe.
this was the REMINDER of what TENNIS COMPETING and HIGHCLASS PLAYING from BOTH players on the level OUGHT to be.
Wimbledon - Serena: I don't care about rankings
Eurosport - Sat, 04 Jul 21:00:00 2009
How can an athlete own three of the four major titles in their sport yet still not be rated the world's best?
TENNIS Serena Williams Wimbledon - 0
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* Serena seals third Wimbledon crown
* WTA rankings
That was the question puzzling not only Wimbledon champion Serena Williams on Saturday but everyone in tennis.
The American was all smiles on court after beating elder sister Venus 7-6 6-2 to win her third Wimbledon crown and she doubled up in laughter when asked to explain why Dinara Safina, yet to win a grand slam title, held the number one ranking.
"I think Dinara did a great job to get to number one - she won (non grand slam titles in) Rome and Madrid," Serena joked.
"I think if you hold three grand slam titles maybe you should be number one but not on the WTA Tour obviously, so... You know, my motivation is maybe just to win another grand slam and stay number two, I guess," she grinned.
Serena has every right to feel baffled after she added the Wimbledon crown to the US and Australian Open titles she has won in the past 10 months.
Safina on the other hand has been rewarded by a system that appears to value consistency rather than the quality of tournaments won.
It has led many people to criticise the way the rankings are calculated and when Serena was usurped by Safina this year, the American claimed she was still the "real number one" no matter what the rankings said. Now she prefers not to dwell on it.
"I would go crazy just thinking about it. I think anyone really could," said the 27-year-old.
"I'd rather definitely be number two and hold three grand slams in the past year than be number one and not have any. I don't know what to do to be number one. I don't even care anymore.
"I think the girl, Dinara, who is number one, you can clearly see by her physique how hard she works. You can't get anywhere by not doing the best and not working your hardest.
"So I'm happy for her (but) I'm really excited that I won Wimbledon."
Safina, a finalist at the Australian and French Opens in 2009, has constantly had to defend her status but she did herself no favours when she was walloped 6-1 6-0 in the Wimbledon semi-finals by Venus.
According to WTA records, the result was the most lopsided win over a current world number one at a grand slam event.
In his last address as WTA chief, Larry Scott defended the system.
"The ranking system is designed sort of around king or queen of the hill - who is the strongest, most consistent performer over the year," he said.
"While I know it does stir debate, the one place it doesn't stir a debate is in the locker room. The players believe in that ranking system."
Reuters
According to WTA records, the result was the most lopsided win over a current world number one at a grand slam event.
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and we can ADD to this the
Thrashing by RAFAEL NADAL of Roger Federer in FO --2008.....
of course that THRASHER is absent -- so roger is "back to 2003/04" like a Spring Chicken with No cares in the world whatsoever......
just -- u kno - a bit of a remindahh...
thanks for that reminder GS
Anyone watching the doubles match with Stubbs-Stosur could see support for why Serena beat Venus...
For most of the match, until late in second set, Serena served well but played so many clumsy shots and was generally the weakest player on the court (aside from serve, of course)...... She made lots of mistakes that she hadn't made the entire tournament..... especially on volleys. Virginia Wade said some shots made her look "ordinary"....... And that was after a (relatively) long rest during men's doubles..... It's not as if she didn't want to win, or that she seemed injured or tired, she just seemed to be mentally spent especially after coming down from the exhilaration of her historic singles win.
So what am I saying - it's just more obvious that she just simply left everything on the court - the only way for her to win was to just stay incredibly focused and intense, not let her foot off the gas and hope for Venus to waver....
Venus, as already noted, rarely plays with consistent intensity from beginning to end of a match, especially if she's playing someone who send back a lot of balls....
Serena Serves better than a lot of MEN. and plays tennis BETTER than a lot of men........
that's for SURE.
Another interesting stat released at the beginning of the match - V&S have only lost one doubles final and that was in 1999.... they have never lost a GS or Olympic doubles final
b said...
thanks for that reminder GS
Sat Jul 04, 07:17:00 PM
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I meant of course thrashing by a LOWERRANKED player over the NUMBER ONE....
venus thrashed safin number one so badly
same as Serena thrashing Sharapova in AO so badly
same as Rafa #2 thrashing Roger number ONE so badly.....
@Craig ... my first race. Did much better than I expected. Thanks for asking :-)
Sleepless night waiting for the lightening Rod to strike.
I think I have been on every single message board defending Serena's statement to the press about the NO. 1 ranking. Boy, I tell you some people really do hate Serena and to a lesser extent Venus. I had to remind folks about the statement that Dinara made recently about players being lucky at winning majors and at least she has not lost 4 first round tournaments. People think that what you see on the court is all that tennis involves. Right now I am thinking that there is a lot of stuff going on in the locker rooms between the players that are finding their way to the press and sometimes to the court. I think if we watch carefully we will be seeing the signs of that very soon.
For the first time in a long while I think I may sleep well tonight on the eve of Roger playing a Wimbledon final. I know it is not because I am nervous he may lose, I think it is because I am actually rooting for someone else to win so I am now in a calm place. I know the night before the FO final I was really nervous and could not sleep. Craig, I hope you have continued to pray. I have no idea how you will sleep tonight, but I do hope comfortably. I have a bottle of Layer Cake 2006 Merlot that I will be opening in the event that Mr. Roddick is successful. If Roger were facing anyone else that would have been my tribute to him, as it is I will have no problem drinking to Mr. Roddick's health if he is successful.
Graf_sampras said...
Serena Serves better than a lot of MEN. and plays tennis BETTER than a lot of men........
that's for SURE.
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Serena is also bigger and stronger than a lot of men.
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