Williams sets sights on Serena Slam

TENNIS/WOMEN'S FINAL:WOMEN'S TENNIS is at a low ebb. That Jelena Jankovic became the first woman to finish the year as the world number one without ever having won a slam showed an inherent weakness at the top, exacerbated by Justine Henin's shock retirement before the French Open and the continuing injury problems of Maria Sharapova, last year's Australian champion.

With Ana Ivanovic, the champion at Roland Garros, losing her form thereafter, and none of the other younger players ready to step up the challenge as yet, the moment was ripe for the re-emergence of the Williams sisters.

Venus retained her hold on the Wimbledon title, beating her younger sister, leaving Serena to regain her domination of the hard courts by winning first the US title and then the Australian following her demolition of Dinara Safina on Saturday. Of her 10 slams, which places her clear in seventh place overall, all but three (Wimbledon 2002 and 2003, and the French Open 2002) have been on the hard courts of New York and Melbourne. That she is now number one is fitting. “I always believe I’m the best, whether I’m number one or whether I’m 100,” she said. “You should never be surprised by anything that I do.”

Venus, who has won seven slams, will be 29 years old in June, and Serena 28 in September. They have always been careful not to over-extend themselves in terms of tournaments, so it is reasonable to suppose they may go on winning grand slam tournaments for a couple more years. “I feel like I can go forever,” said Serena.

It would mean much for her to equal or pass Billie Jean King’s 12 majors, though the 18 of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are probably beyond her.

Should she win at Roland Garros, by some distance her least successful slam, then the thought of a calendar slam might act as a considerable spur. She won four majors back to back from the French Open in 2002 through to the 2003 Australian Open, her “Serena slam”, and is now two away from a repetition.

Much may depend on whether Sharapova’s shoulder is properly mended after last year’s operation. As for keeping the number one spot, it holds no great interest for Williams, principally because she rarely plays enough WTA tournaments to hold on to it. The slams are a different matter.

Williams thrashed the Russian 6-0, 6-3 in 59 minutes in Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night.

“The Serena Slam is something I’d like to do again,” Williams said.

“It would be great to win more than one, more than two grand slams this year, more than three. That would be awesome.”

Next on the list will be the French Open, which starts on May 25th. At Roland Garros last year she bowed out in the third round to Katarina Srebotnik.

“Obviously my sights are on doing well in Paris,” she added. “I didn’t do well at all last year. So when I get there I won’t have that much to lose and I’ll just be really relaxed.”

Williams’s crushing win on Saturday night saw her join an elite group of King, Chris Evert, Helen Wills Moody, Steffi Graf and Margaret Court who have all won 10 or more grand slams. But having reached double figures and become the highest female prize-money earner in sport, Williams reckons she has plenty left in her.

“I definitely feel like I have so many years to play. Obviously I think I’m playing pretty well, so . . . I think that I can definitely do it.”

Williams took charge of the one-sided final from the first ball as Safina wilted under the pressure of trying to win her maiden grand slam and take the number one spot. The American second seed, who also won the women’s doubles at Melbourne Park with sister Venus, rated her performance as almost on a par with her crushing 6-1, 6-2 win against Sharapova in 2007. “I think ’07 and ’09 are really close. I don’t know which one was really better. I was really playing well in ’07, the final,” she said. “I definitely think it was one of my most dominant performances, especially considering it was a final.”

Safina admitted nerves had got the better. She double faulted three times in her opening service game to hand Williams the advantage and from there it was all downhill for the third seed. She managed to hold serve just twice in the 59-minute match, and break the Williams serve once, but Safina, who lost to Ivanovic in the final at Roland Garros last year, was confident she would bounce back quickly.

“If I would lose the first round, of course I would sit here and I would start to think,” she said. “But I lost in the final. I made it all the way. There is much more positive than negative. I just lost the match, and it’s back to training. I don’t see any reason to panic.”