Born fighter Serena takes fifth title

TENNIS:SERENA WILLIAMS won't care one whit about the manner in which she claimed her fifth Wimbledon title and her 14th Grand Slam. The aesthetics in performance terms of a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 victory over number three seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the Saturday's final at the All England Club will be for others to disseminate.

The American understandably preferred to focus on a triumph that brings a joyful closure to a two-year period in which her life and her career were assailed by surgery and serious illness. She fought with typical tenacity and her reward was thoroughly merited over a fortnight in which the general quality of her tennis brooked no argument.

It was appropriate that Wimbledon provided the backdrop because it was shortly after her win here in 2010, her last Grand Slam victory before Saturday, that her off-court travails began. She stepped on broken glass outside a Munich restaurant, requiring surgery to both feet.

A more sinister legacy, initially undetected, was a blood clot on her lungs that saw her hospitalised.

She recalled the tipping point, where she prayed for some relief. “There was a moment, I just remember I was on the couch and I didn’t leave (it for) the whole day, for two days. I was praying like I can’t take any more. I’ve endured enough: let me be able to get through this.

“I didn’t give up. I was just so tired at that point. I had a tube in my stomach and it was draining constantly. Gosh, I mean, right before that I had the blood clot. I had lung problems. Then I had two foot surgeries. It was a lot. I felt like I didn’t do anything to bring on that. I just felt down, the lowest of lows.”

She credited physical trainer Esther Lee, sister Isha, personal assistant Val Vogt and agent Jill Smoller for nudging her from her sick bed. “I remember Esther, she came up to me and she was like, God is really going to help you through this. He never gives you more than you can handle. I think she saw that I was really, really, really down. So that really helped me, or else I would still be there.

“You know, coming here and winning is amazing because literally last year I was ranked almost 200. It’s been an unbelievable journey. The French Open was so disappointing because I won Charleston and I won Madrid. I did extremely well in Rome. I was undefeated on clay. I had a lot of confidence. You know, when I lost that really got me down.”

Her rehabilitation from the disappointment of Roland Garros was conducted on the grass of Wimbledon over the past fortnight, each victory instilling more confidence, especially in the light of the tough draw she had to endure. If the journey to the final was demanding, the perception was that Radwanska simply did not possess the tennis tools to trouble the American.

For a set and a half, it seemed an accurate assessment, the 23-year-old Pole playing in her first Grand Slam final, and conspicuously affected by a viral respiratory infection, was overwhelmed by her opponent and one suspects, the environment. She may have been a junior Wimbledon champion in 2005 but this challenge was light years removed, even with her WTA tour experience.

She looked and played like a little girl, lost; bullied physically by Williams. Radwanska contributed to the mauling with some insipid serving and offered no tactical nuances in trying to stymie her opponent. The rain delay allowed her to regroup but it was Williams who got spooked in sight of the finishing line.

The most mundane errors spilled from her racquet as she tightened appreciably and from leading 4-2 in the second set, she was ushered into a final set. Radwanska showed great resolve to take that second set 7-5. At 2-2 in the third, Williams released the mental shackles – she served four aces in one game having earlier broken the record for the tournament – just enough to win the last four games.

She admitted to anxiety: “There’s no reason in particular (for it). I just think that I was playing aggressive a little more than the first set. Then I have to give credit where credit’s due. She started playing excellent grass court tennis, getting a lot of balls back, and I panicked a little bit and I shouldn’t have. I usually don’t.”

She accepted the Venus Rosewater Dish for a fifth time, matching the achievement of her older sister, Venus. She laughed: “I always wanted what Venus had.”

The pair combined to win the ladies doubles title for a fifth time later that afternoon.

Having matched Martina Navratilova’s feat of winning the Wimbledon singles title in her 30s – Williams is 30 – an achievement that dates back to 1990, the latter in determined to chase her record of 18 Grand Slam singles titles. On the evidence of the last fortnight it is well within her compass.