Williams overwhelms Sharapova to clinch title
Unseeded Serena Williams completed her Australian Open dream with a stunning 6-1 6-2 straight sets victory over number one seed Maria Sharapova to win her eighth Grand Slam title on Saturday.
Williams overwhelmed the Russian US Open Champion, who will regain the world number one place on Monday, and completed a remarkable comeback after her ranking slipped to 81 following a serious knee injury.
Williams will move up to 14 in the rankings next week after completing victory in just one hour and three minutes at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne to claim a third Australian Open title and become the first unseeded player to land the crown since Chris O’Neil in 1978.
“I would like to thank Maria for being a great sport and a great champion,” said an emotional Williams. “She has a great attitude. She has a few more years to go, maybe more than I do, she defiantly has a great future. She is always fighting to the last point, that’s what I love to see.”
Sharapova added: “You can never underestimate her as an opponent. I don’t think many people expected her to be in the final, but I defiantly did. I knew what she was capable of and she defiantly showed that today. She is an amazing champion, she has shown it here many times.
“I look forward to playing her many more times and winning a few, I hope.”
Williams showed she was not suffering from any nerves with an impressive first service game, after Sharapova had won the toss and chosen to receive.
The number one seed struggled with her first serve in her opening game and Williams broke at the first time of asking as the American capitalised on the Russian’s string of double faults with some powerful returns.
Williams held to take a 3-0 lead before gaining a second break as Sharapova struggled to cope with her powerful opponent.
The 25-year-old quickly moved into a 0-40 lead in the fourth game and grabbed the double break with a thumping forehand return.
Sharapova registered her first game to reduce the deficit to 1-5 but Williams drew first blood on her second set point to seal the 1-0 lead in 27 minutes.
The second set continued in the same fashion as Sharapova opened the first game with a double fault and was soon 15-40 down before Williams took the first break with a stunning backhand winner down the line.
Sharapova had a chance to break back in the next game but Williams withstood a slight wobble and stormed into a 2-0 lead backed by her reliable and deadly accurate serve.
The American hit two quickfire double faults but an ace on break point and two unreturnable serves saw off the resistance.
Williams continued the onslaught in the third game as Sharapova fought of several break points before succumbing as she overhit a backhand return to fall 0-3 behind.
The Russian continued to struggle against Williams’ serve as she sealed a comprehensive hold with her fifth ace of the match before Sharapova held for only the second time to reduce the arrears to 1-4.
Williams maintained her serving dominance with another hold before Sharapova showed some resistence with a second consecutive hold of her own to force the American to serve for the title.
And Williams did just that backed by a 79% first serve success rate and 27 winners compared to just 12 from Sharapova.
