TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS: VENUS WILLIAMS was asked just after she had won her fifth Wimbledon title last summer against her sibling Serena whether this was the beginning of a sisterly second coming. "I would really love that," she replied.
A couple of months later Serena became the US Open champion for a third time, and now the younger of the American pair is the overwhelming favourite to win Saturday’s Australian Open final against Dinara Safina of Russia.
It will be a winner-takes-all final to usurp Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic as the world number one, though few would argue against the assertion that Serena Williams, when she puts her mind to it, is overwhelmingly the best player in the world. Victory against Safina, last year’s beaten French Open finalist, would see Williams lay claim to her fourth Australian Open title, and her 10th grand slam in total, taking her clear in seventh place in the all-time list.
Richard Williams, her father, remarked Serena’s victory over Jankovic in New York last autumn reminded him of “a cross between a pit bull, a young Mike Tyson, and an alligator”. It was not exactly a flattering analogy, but you took his point. She is a supreme competitor, as she showed again against Russia’s Elena Dementieva in their semi-final.
The Williams sisters took the power game to a new level, forcing their rivals to ever higher levels of fitness, though it has taken its toll. Justin Henin retired last year, while Maria Sharapova, the only Russian to have beaten Serena in a grand slam final, is currently recovering from a shoulder operation.
Venus and Serena have always been sparing with the number of tournaments they play, and have been roundly criticised for it, yet they appear to be having the last laugh, with 16 grand slam titles between them.
Chris Evert criticised Serena for not putting 100 per cent into tennis, only to retract after last year’s US Open: “It’s opened my eyes not to be judgmental and to each his own. Whatever makes you happy. By having other interests, maybe you won’t get burned out so quickly,” she said.
Dementieva reached the finals of both the French and US Opens in 2004 when her suspect serve first came under the harshest light of scrutiny. It has improved immensely since then but when the pressure is ratcheted up, as it was against Williams, the old cracks appeared and she double-faulted eight times.
The 27-year-old, who had won the two build-up tournaments in Auckland and Sydney, plays her tennis on the edge, as her squeals of frustration on the centre court indicated. Serena was more inclined to growl like a bear with a sore head when matters were not going quite right. Many of the rallies were of the highest quality, though women’s tennis is desperate for a player gifted enough, and brave enough, to vary the baseline bombardment.
Safina took some time to emerge from the shadow of her more illustrious brother, Marat Safin, the former US Open and Australian Open champion. Should she beat Williams, and the Russian has won only one of their previous six matches, then she and Marat would become the first brother and sister both to win a grand slam title.
The last significant match between Safina and Williams was in the semi-finals of last year’s US Open when Serena won 6-3, 6-2, and although the Russian’s improvement over the last year has been considerable, taking her to number three in the world, Safina continues to look shaky under pressure.
That said, she battled through against Australia's Jelena Dokic and a partisan crowd in the quarter-finals, and overcame fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6 in the semis yesterday. However, it will be a major shock, in a women's tournament lacking upsets, if Safina won. Guardian Service
RESULTS
MEN'S SINGLES:Semi-final: (2) Roger Federer (Swi) bt (7) Andy Roddick (USA) 6-2 7-5 7-5.
WOMEN'S SINGLES:Semi-finals: (3) Dinara Safina (Rus) bt (7) Vera Zvonareva (Rus) 6-3 7-6 (7-4); (2) Serena Williams (USA) bt (4) Elena Dementieva (Rus) 6-3 6-4.
MEN'S DOUBLES: Semi-finals: (2) Bob Bryan (USA) and Mike Bryan (USA) bt (4) Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) and Leander Paes (Ind) 6-3 6-3; (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) and Mark Knowles (Bah) bt Lukasz Kubot (Pol) and Oliver Marach (Aut) 6-3 6-1.
WOMEN'S DOUBLES: Semi-finals: (9) Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) and Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Nathalie Dechy (Fra) and Mara Santangelo (Ita) 6-4 6-3; (10) Serena Williams (USA) and Venus Williams (USA) bt (12) Casey Dellacqua (Aus) and Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 6-0 6-2.
MIXED DOUBLES: Quarter-final: Iveta Benesova (Cze) and Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) bt Alize Cornet (Fra) and Marcelo Melo (Bra) w/o. Semi-final: Nathalie Dechy (Fra) and Andy Ram (Isr) bt (7) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) and Tommy Robredo (Spa) 7-6 (9-7) 6-4.
