The Hindu : Sport : Serena authors the impossible dream story

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Serena authors the impossible dream story

Nirmal Shekar

CHAMPION STUFF: It was a fairy tale end for Serena Williams as she routed Maria Sharapova in the final. — PHOTO: AP

Melbourne: As a natural-born actress, there is nothing that Serena Williams loves more than role-playing. The 25-year-old American loves to reinvent herself on a big stage time and again, self-admittedly writing her own scripts to make sure everything is just right.

But, then, it must have taken a preposterous combination of day-dreaming, self-belief and sporting hubris to have authored anything quite like the Impossible Dream story that Serena carried to its illogically logical conclusion in the Australian Open championship, on Saturday.

Flying out of Florida world ranked 95, coming into Melbourne 14 places higher, at No. 81, Serena has starred in the mother of all fairy tales for almost two full weeks, finally blowing the top seed, Maria Sharapova, off the court, to win the women's singles final 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and three minutes.

Redemption

As a tale of redemption, tennis has seen nothing quite like this since Andre Agassi, in his final and finest avatar as a pro, capped a marvellous comeback by winning the 1999 French Open. But, to be fair to Serena, Agassi had more matches under his belt going into Paris and was ranked a lot higher than Serena was when she entered this event.

"I have been working really hard,'' said Serena. "Finally it all came together, especially in the final. This goes down as one of my best matches.

I was really focussed." The stunning demolition job saw Serena become lowest ranked Australian women's champion since Chris O'Neil (world ranked 111) here in 1978. But that was a time when the field was considerably weaker with the top players choosing not to go to Australia.

"The greatest satisfaction is in proving everyone wrong,'' said Serena, who also won here in 2003 and 2005. "Tell me `no' and I'll show you I can do it.''

Sweet revenge

It was Serena's eighth Grand Slam title in 10 finals and it must have helped erase memories of a shocking defeat to a 17-year old Maria Sharapova in the 2004 Wimbledon final.

The former world No.1, who dedicated the win to her oldest sister Yetunde Price, who was shot and killed in a crime-infested Los Angeles suburb in September 2003, will move to No. 14 in the rankings from No. 81, the biggest two-week jump of her career.

Ironically, the final, played under a closed roof at the Rod Laver Arena because of intermittent drizzle, turned out to be the easiest match of the fortnight for Serena, who had spent a cumulative 10 hours and 32 minutes on court before Saturday's match.

In the third round, Nadia Petrova served for the match against Serena and in the quarterfinals, the Israeli teenager Shahar Peer came within two points of defeating her.

But came the big match, and Serena climbed on some invisible ladder as her tennis touched an altitude that it has not aspired to in a long, long time.

The American who cut a colourful swathe through the draw unveiled a game marked by a consistent quality of powered control. Hitting seven aces and a few other service winners, she was never broken in the match. And Serena's groundstrokes had the precision of lasers, the forehand crosscourt returns among the best seen in a women's match in many seasons.

Off day

Off-colour of course, Sharapova had an off day. She struggled with her serves (51 per cent first serve success), moved as if 40-kg stone slabs were chained to her feet, and generally failed to rouse herself for the big occasion. But how much of this was influenced by Serena's outrageous brilliance is still debatable.

"I have always known what she is capable of,'' said Sharapova, who will recapture the No. 1 ranking on Monday. "She is an amazing champion.'' Tenacity is Sharapova's calling card; but, on Saturday, it was rarely in evidence as Serena won the first five games of the match, quickly closed out the first set, and then staved off a breakpoint on serve in the crucial second game of the second set.

"That was a very important game. If I had lost that we'd still be hitting out there,'' Serena said in a television interview more than half an hour after wrapping up the match, dropping her racquet and falling flat on her back in ecstasy.

Match stats

First serve %: Serena 67, Sharapova 51. Aces: Serena 7, Sharapova 3. Double faults: Serena 2, Sharapova 6. Winners: Serena 28, Sharapova 12. Unforced errors: Serena 11, Sharapova 13. Net approaches: Serena: 9 of 11, Sharapova 5 of 6. Total points won: Serena 61, Sharapova 35.

Bryan brothers triumph

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the United States, the top seeds in the men's doubles event, beat the second seeds, Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi 7-5, 7-5 in an entertaining final to win their second straight Australian Open title and their fifth Grand Slam title together.

Last year, in the final here, the Bryans had beaten Leander Paes and Martin Damm.

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