Associated Press
Serena Williams leaps for joy after beating Jelena Jankovic for her third U.S. Open title. |
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NEW YORK – Serena Williams flung her racket straight up and jumped for joy, hopping and skipping and screaming and generally looking like someone who had just won her first U.S. Open title or earned her debut at No. 1.
Nope.
It sure had been awhile, though.
Displaying the talent and tenacity that allowed her to dominate tennis earlier in the decade, Williams outlasted Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 7-5 last night to win her third U.S. Open championship and ninth Grand Slam title.
And there was this “added bonus,” as Williams termed it: She returns to the top of the rankings.
“I think this title meant more to Serena than any title she's ever won,” her father and coach, Richard Williams said.
As the women met at the net when it ended, Williams felt compelled to say to Jankovic, “I'm sorry I got so excited.”
No apology necessary.
Four times a single point from heading to a third set, Williams was simply relentless. She took the final four games, and 13 of the last 19 points.
“I felt I had her. I had her, because she was really tired at the end of the second set,” Jankovic said. “Who knows what would have happened if I had got into a third set? I probably would have had the upper hand. But who knows?”
Instead, Williams took the title without dropping a set. The closest she came to losing one? In the quarterfinals, when she beat older sister Venus in two tiebreakers.
On this night, Venus was in the guest box, cheering for Kid Sis.
“Her desire is unbelievable,” Richard Williams said. “I describe her as being a combination of a pit bull dog, a young Mike Tyson and an alligator.”
It was his youngest daughter's first triumph at Flushing Meadows since 2002, and it guaranteed that the American will lead the rankings today for the first time since a 57-week run ended in August 2003 – the longest gap between stints at No. 1 for a woman.
Williams' previous Grand Slam title came in January 2007, at the Australian Open.
Murray stuns No. 1 Nadal
No one ever seems to run Rafael Nadal ragged, and yet Andy Murray did just that in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Murray finished a stunning, rain-interrupted 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4 victory to reach his first Grand Slam final and stop the No. 1-ranked Nadal's 19-match winning streak at major tournaments.
Trying to become the first British man to win a major tennis championship since Fred Perry at the 1936 U.S. Open, Murray will face four-time defending champion Roger Federer in the final tonight.
The sixth-seeded Murray won the first two sets against Nadal and was down a break at 3-2 in the third in Louis Armstrong Stadium when play was suspended Saturday because of Tropical Storm Hanna. But Nadal made a stand yesterday, when they resumed things in Arthur Ashe Stadium, taking the third set and going ahead 3-1 in the fourth.
But he took five of the last six games, breaking Nadal twice and ending the Spaniard's bid to make his first final at the U.S. Open.
Also
In the junior finals, CoCo Vandeweghe of Carlsbad defeated Gabriela Paz Franco of Venezuela 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 for the girls' title, and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat Devin Britton of the U.S. 6-4, 6-3 for the boys' title.
Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of the United States beat Lisa Raymond of the U.S. and Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) to win their first U.S. Open women's doubles championship.
