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A New Grand Slam Champion - Page 6

© Michael Cecilio

For Serena's older sister, the opposite seemed true as Venus went up against the world #1 Martina Hingis. Known as the more powerful sister off the ground and off the serve, Venus was unable to execute her big serve on the big points. In fact, Venus served no better than horribly, especially in the first and third sets. Many of her first serves were clocked no faster than 85 mph, a huge difference to her biggest serve of 120 mph. Unlike Serena, Venus's serve folded under pressure and proved to be the costly factor in Williams's loss, along with a ghastly amount of unforced errors and some cramping in the final games.

Hingis clearly outplayed Williams in the first set, using pinpoint precision from the baseline and hitting a number of winners on the lines. Remarkably, she only made two unforced errors in that first set. Hingis's play never reached the same heights in the final two sets, but her on-court smarts and her ability to run her ailing opponent around the court helped her win the match.

And the final showdown
And so it was set in stone: Martina Hingis versus Serena Williams. Hingis entered the match as the favourite, given her experience in Grand Slam finals (this was her ninth career slam final). It was unknown just how Serena would handle the pressure of the match, given this was just her first career slam final, and Hingis knew this by electing to receive in the opening game.

In fact, Serena held herself throughout the match with maturity and poise, never seeming excessively nervous and was still able to pull out the big guns on the big points. She overpowered Hingis in the first set by using her serve effectively. The second set seemed much like the first as Williams led 6-3 5-3 - one game away from a first Grand Slam title. And then she had two match points on Hingis's serve. A number of shaky groundstrokes cost Williams that game, and lost her serve in a very tight display to let Hingis back into the match for 5-5. When Hingis held at love for 6-5, it seemed as if the wheels had fallen off for Serena, who looked incredibly tight and was not hitting her shots with the full vigour as in the first set. Had Hingis been able to win that second set, it would have been likely that she would have taken the match and the title, given her experience. However, she let a break point and set point slip away as Williams gutted out a very difficult service hold to take the second set to a tiebreak. As usually seems to be the case, possessing a big serve is such an advantage in tiebreak situations as it definitely helps to earn a few cheap points especially in a situation where every point counts.

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