April 5th, 2008
Miami, Florida
Serena Williams was up and then she was down and then back up again, and then down before finally closing out a dramatic and sub par Final between herself and Jelena Jankovic. Serena was going for her 5th Sony Ericsson Open title in the last 7 years. Jankovic on the other hand was trying to gain her largest tournament victory of her career.
The match started out surprisingly well for Williams who last met and lost to Jankovic in the Quarter-Finals during the Australian Open. It wasn't until Williams was leading 6-1, 5-3, that things started to fall apart. Williams' serve went Awol as did her ground game, but to give credit to Jankovic, she was doing her best to return everything and make Williams hit that extra shot. And it worked, Jankovic went on to win the 2nd Set 7-5 after Williams made a double fault on set point.
The 3rd Set was more drama, as is expected from two of the Tour's best dramatic performers. Williams raced out to a 5-0 lead before problems began occurring again. Jankovic started to fight back, and Williams once again got tight and over anxious, making error after error. Before you knew it, the score was 5-3 with Jankovic having chances to make it 5-4. Williams fought hard and tried to keep the Serbian at bay and it wasn't until her 8th Championship Point where Williams smashed an overhead that the title was hers.
Serena Williams has captured her 30th career title and 5th Sony Ericsson Open. She ties Steffi Graf's record for most for a female, Andre Agassi has the most out of anyone with 6 titles. Williams will pocket more than $500,000 while Jankovic will take over more than $200,000. For Jankovic, this week was a good showing, giving her confidence coming up on the clay, one of her favorite surfaces. For Williams, she will take a small break and return on the clay to try and continue some momentum heading towards Roland Garros in May.
Sony Ericsson Open
Center Court
Serena Williams d. Jelena Jankovic - 6-1, 5-7, 6-3
No comments:
Post a Comment