2-Time Champ Serena Williams Back In US Open Final
Serena Williams wound up and smacked a shot directly at Dinara Safina early in the second set of their U.S. Open semifinal. The ball hit Safina near her shoulder, ending the point, and she quickly turned her back to the net, muttering as she walked away, ignoring Williams' attempts to apologize. Not much later Friday, Williams tried again to say "Sorry," except this time both players were standing up at the net after the American wrapped up a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Now Williams can take aim at a third championship at Flushing Meadows and ninth Grand Slam title overall. It's Williams' first U.S. Open final since 2002, when she beat older sister Venus. This time, she dispatched Venus in the quarterfinals.
Williams got off to a shaky start against Safina, the younger sister of 2000 U.S. Open men's champion Marat Safin. Broken in her first service game, Williams fell behind 2-0, but she won seven of the next eight games, eventually doing a much better job than Safina of dealing with wind that gusted at over 20 mph. Safina wound up with 41 unforced errors, and she repeatedly rolled her eyes or shook her head or shouted at herself in English or Russian. A few points after being pelted by the ball, Safina hit her fifth double-fault of the match and yelled, "I hate the wind!" Two points after that, Safina pushed a backhand long and Williams broke to lead 2-1 in the second set. "I thought, 'OK, if it's so windy, then I'm not going to go for so many winners," said Williams, who didn't produce her first winning forehand until the match was 30 minutes old. In the final, the fourth-seeded Williams will face No. 2 Jelena Jankovic, who beat Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4. In addition to the silver trophy at stake, either Williams or Jankovic will earn the No. 1 spot in the rankings next week. That final is scheduled for Saturday night, but forecasts calling for rain much of the day prompted tournament organizers to announce contingency plans that could include postponing the match until Sunday.
Williams Sisters Win Gold in Olympic Tennis Doubles
Venus and Serena Williams teamed up to win the Olympic doubles final Sunday, beating Spanish duo Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0.
Serena Williams advances at German Open
Serena Williams won her 16th straight match, defeating Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-3 Tuesday in the second round of the German Open.
Williams is chasing her fourth straight WTA title. Her last loss came in February against Jelena Jankovic in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
The Italian fought off repeated break chances throughout the second set before her forehand sailed long and allowed Williams to take a 4-2 lead.
"I'm healthy. I'm focused. Tennis is my priority," said Williams, ranked No. 6. "Everything is just coming together. Obviously, I would like to keep up the streak. I really want to keep it up on clay. I can slide on clay and be a little bit more lazy — I like that."
Two other seeded players also advanced. No. 8 Marion Bartoli cruised past Lucie Safarova 6-0, 6-3, and No. 7 Elena Dementieva defeated Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-2. Vera Dushevina upset ninth-seed Patty Schnyder, 6-2, 6-3, and Gisela Dulko beat No. 12 Nicole Vaidisova, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
The 20th-ranked Schiavone appeared to be a tough first match for Williams. Schiavone has 12 wins this year against Top 10 players, including No. 1 Justine Henin. She defeated Williams in their only clay match two years ago in Rome.
But Williams never had trouble with Schiavone, leading 10-3 in winners during the opening games despite trouble keeping the ball in the court.
After settling down, Williams kept the pressure on Schiavone's serve.
"This was a good first match, she's a great player to play against," Williams said. "I served well and that keeps me happy."
Williams is looking for her first title at the clay-court event, a warmup for the French Open.
Her most recent title came two weeks ago on clay in Charleston, S.C., the first on the surface since she won the 2002 French Open. That year Williams produced her best showing at the German Open, losing a three-set final to Henin.
