Australian Open: Serena Williams Prevails in 3 Sets

The women’s final pitted defending champion Serena Williams against comeback Belgian Justine Henin (see first entry). Serena defended her title down under for the first time, which undoubtedly added to her drive. She doesn’t need any extra help though, winning the first meeting of the two players in a Major final 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

With her second serve weapon, Serena advanced through the first four rounds without getting broken, but lost her serve on five occasions against Victoria Azarenka in the quarters and once against Na Li in the semis. Today, she dropped serve five times, but immediately broke back at least twice. Henin failed to hold six times and was broken three times in a row to end the match, helping Serena to finalize her victory.

Taking out the astronomical quarterfinal statistics, she hit an average of 37.2 winners per match throughout the two weeks, and she continued that pattern against Henin today. Serena served 12 aces in the finals, many well timed to dig her out of break point situations. Henin powered four aces, including one on a second serve.

Despite the overall numbers, Serena struggled on serve early, facing multiple deuces in her first two service games. Henin had chances but only converted 1 of 7 early break points.

Although Henin found her game and hit winner after winner at the beginning of the third set, Serena won the final four games in route to the championship. It was her fifth Australian Open and 12th career Grand Slam singles title, tying her with Billie Jean King, who attended the match.