Melbourne.- Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-6 (5) and was crowned for the sixth time at the Australian Open. Overall, she reached her 19th Grand Slam title, taking distance from Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert (18), to be just three behind Steffi Graf (22), among the most winners of the Open Era.
Serena began the match looking to impose her power from the first ball, putting pressure on the return and taking a quick break to the lead for 2-0.
Rushed and cold, Serena ignored any concerns: ace, winning shot and 4-2. In short, in the next game she would break Sharapova to zero, who was once more irregular at the (re)start.
The American’s only gap in the match came when she served for a set at 5-2. In her worst game of the match, No. 1 gave away her only break of the night with a double fault and gave the first chapter a little more suspense. Little suspense, actually. Because four balls later she broke the Russian’s serve once more and billed the difference.
Until then it was all regarding Serena. 11 winners to just three from Sharapova, even numbers in unforced errors, but a clear difference on serve, with the No. 1 getting free points in complicated situations and the Russian depending a lot on her first shot.
In the second set, Sharapova assumed a much more aggressive attitude, even though she had to win the points two or three times once morest Serena who, with her strong arms, returned everything from the base. Furthermore, the Russian began to find answers with the open serve and from there she began to diversify the search.
Now with Serena at the service, a close match: open service, ace, racket on the floor and smile… half. The ball touched the net, the point is repeated. Zero problem for No. 1: same powerful serve, same place, ace and, now, all the glory in her hands.
With her 19th crown, then, the North American went 19-4 in Grand Slam finals, also reaching 65 titles in her career. In addition, she will stretch the advantage over the Russian in the WTA ranking to around 1,500 points.
(fuente:comexmasters.com)
#Serena #reigns #sixth #time #Australia
2024-04-22 20:09:34
