Serena Williams thrashed Russia’s Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 to win her fourth Australian Open title yesterday, bringing up her 10th Grand Slam and reclaiming the world No. 1 ranking on the way.
In one of the most lopsided deciders ever, the American utterly dominated third seed Safina, allowing her opponent to win only eight points in the first set on her way to claiming the championship in less than an hour.
“I’m so excited ... I clearly love playing here and I get great support here. I don’t get that every place I go,” she said after winning the first women’s night final played at the Rod Laver Arena.
PHOTO: EPA
Williams, the second seed, backed up her pre-tournament comments that she was the best women’s tennis player in the world and will now officially reclaim the top ranking from Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic.
She also became the highest ever prize money winner in women’s sport during the tournament and won the women’s doubles title with her sister Venus on Friday.
Williams said she was thrilled to join the likes of Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova in the elite group of women with 10 or more Grand Slams.
“I idolized Steffi Graf,” she said. “When I played her I was like ‘Oh my God, it’s Steffi Graf’ and Martina Navratilova was someone who was my role model, so when I think of these greats I don’t really think of my name, I think of them. I think people are starting to think of me [in those terms], which is uber-cool, I can’t even get my mind around that.”
Safina, whose brother Marat Safin won the men’s title in 2005, had aimed to enter the history books as the part of the only brother-sister combination to hold Grand Slam titles.
Instead, she narrowly avoided entering the record books as being on the wrong end of the worst drubbing in a final in the tournament’s history.
“Serena was too good, I was only a ball boy on the court today,” the 22-year-old Russian said. “Sorry to the people who supported me, today I let you down a little bit, but I’ll come back next year and try and do better.”
Only Graf in 1994 and Margaret Smith in 1962 have posted more comprehensive victories in the decider, both winning 6-0, 6-2.
Williams continued a sequence of winning the Australian Open title in odd-numbered years, with her previous wins coming in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
Safina also lost her only previous Grand Slam final at the French Open last year, but Williams was full of praise for her after the match.
“Dinara has a good future,” Williams said. “She’s hitting the ball so hard I just had to go for broke. Thanks to her for putting on a great show for women’s tennis.”
The Russian may take some comfort from compatriot Maria Sharapova, who also managed to take just three games off Williams when she was humbled 6-1, 6-2 in the 2007 final, but came back to take the title the following year.
Williams showed no signs of the service problems that dogged her early in the tournament and aggressively took the game to Safina from the outset.
It was Safina’s serve, with its trademark high ball toss, that fell apart as she coughed up three double faults in her opening service game to gift Williams an easy break.
She continued to break Safina at will, while the Russian could only manage two points off Williams’ serve in a first set that that was over in 22 minutes.
“I saw that it was so fast and I thought: ‘OK, I’ve got to stay focussed,’” Williams said. “I thought: ‘Safina, she’s a warrior, she never gives up, she’s been down a couple of match points already in the tournament, so I’ve got to stay focused.’”
Safina desperately tried to regroup and broke Williams in the first game of the second set, but could not stop the rot and conceded the match when she hit a drop shot wide after 59 minutes.
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AFP, MELBOURNE,AUSTRALIA
Spain’s Rafael Nadal named Roger Federer as clear favorite for their Australian Open final after the top seed’s epic semi-final with Fernando Verdasco on Friday.
Nadal, who sobbed as he earned three match points after 5 hours, 14 minutes — an Australian Open record — was facing a race against time to recover for today’s final.
“It’s going to be a little bit tough on Sunday. Roger had today [Friday] off and only three sets in his semi-final so now, for sure, he’s the favorite,” Nadal said. “But, I’ll try my best.”
After the brutal but high-quality marathon, Verdasco netted the final point at 1:07am yesterday and Nadal was still talking to the media at 3am.
He said he would have a massage, eat and try to sleep as long as possible yesterday before a light practice session in the evening.
The Spaniard, 22, is unlikely to be fully recovered after being stretched to the limit by his fellow left-hander, who bounced back from an apparent injury problem to force a gripping final set.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB