Serena sizzles in Paris

(Rank/Seed)

1/1 Williams continued her dominance of (2/2) Sharapova 64 64 to win her second French Open title and 16th major title. It takes Williams to 14-2 in their career head to head, having won the last 13!

1st Set

Sharapova started intensely, holding from 0-40 in her first service game, breaking Serena's serve and even having a 40-15 lead in the third game. However, Williams fed off Sharapova's energy and started to raise her own level. Most of the points ended with an error, but the battle was fierce as both players moved each other around with power hitting. Williams took a 4-2 lead, but Sharapova levelled at 4-4, only then to lose her serve again. Williams then served it out. It was obvious that Sharapova often scored when she went out wide to Serena's forehand, but she made too many errors on important points.

2nd Set

Once again, Maria had to fight hard to even hold her serve but she managed to do it all but once during the set. The problem was that that was all Serena needed, a break in the third game being decisive as she began to hit her serve harder. Before long, Williams was motoring to the finish line, never missing on the short ball put away and firing down several aces per game. She set up three championship points with a backhand winner and it was obvious that Williams was nervous to close it out. She would later admit that she was and felt that she couldn't hit any ground stokes so had to go for aces; she got one, hitting an ace down the centre line to claim the championship.

All in all, it was a great final where Williams was forced to play her best to beat Sharapova, who did much better than she did recently in Madrid. Still, Williams didn't play as unbeatably as she did in the semis and Sharapova might have been able to take better advantage if her first serve percentage had been higher. Serena now holds Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, the Olympic Gold and the WTA Championships, making that loss in Australia seem all the more note worthy. Only Steffi Graf has held all the above championships at once in 1987-8, though she also held the Australian title! Two more majors now for Williams and she will equal Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.