Chris Evert. Martina Navratilova. Serena Williams.
The three greatest female tennis players in American history are now tied on the only list that matters: career Grand Slam wins. With a convincing 6-3, 6-3 victory over her good friend Caroline Wozniacki, Williams earned her 18th major title, tying her for second with Evert and Navratilova on the all-time list in the Open Era.
It was Serena’s third-straight U.S. Open title, a feat that hadn’t been pulled off since Chris Evert won four straight from 1975-78. Overall, this was Serena’s record-tying sixth championship in New York (Evert also won six) and comes 15 years after she won her first one. Those six titles are the most she’s won of any Slam, going along with her five Australian Opens, five Wimbledons and two French Opens.
Though her run through the draw was expected and as routine as ever — Serena didn’t lose more than three games in any of her 14 sets at the tournament — the win carried special meaning, as evidenced by the 32-year-old’s lengthy on-court celebration after Wozniacki’s final shot went long. Serena had the poorest Grand Slam showing of her career in 2014. The season that was supposed to be her coronation as the undisputed queen of American tennis instead turned into an odd mix of major disappointments buoyed by domination in lesser events. It was her career in reverse.
In Melbourne, Paris and Wimbledon, Serena fell in shock upsets. She never made it past the fourth round at the year’s first three majors, a run of failure she hadn’t experienced since her major debut as a 16-year-old in 1998.
Now that she has No. 18 on the shelf, the attention shifts from American supremacy to world supremacy. Steffi Graf is the all-time leader with 22 Grand Slams. Serena is four away from tying the German legend and five away from passing her. With her 33rd birthday at the end of the month, does Serena have enough time to pass the great Graf?
By ending 2014 on a high note, there’s no reason to expect Serena to stop anytime soon. In the past 26 months, she’s won five Slams in 10 starts. If she keeps that pace, she’d get to Graf at the French Open in 2017, when she’s 35 years old. No woman has consistently won Slams while that old. But the game has skewed older in recent years and Serena has accomplished plenty that other haven’t.
If she wants Graf, she can get there. As Serena Williams showed over the past two weeks, there’s no one in the sport who can compete with her when she’s on top of her game, whether she’s in her teens, twenties or thirties.
Serena Williams beat Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to win her sixth US Open and 18th Grand Slam title.
The American, ranked one in the world, won 6-3 6-3 at Flushing Meadows in New York.
After a poor start from both players, Williams steadied herself to take the first set and found something approaching her best form to dominate the second.
The victory moves her to joint-fourth in the all-time list of major winners, alongside Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
Williams, 32, has now won three successive titles at the US Open, the scene of her first Grand Slam triumph 15 years ago.
“It was a really wonderful feeling,” said Williams, who was joined by Navratilova and Evert for the trophy presentation, when she also collected US$4m in prize money.
“I couldn’t have finished things in a better way. It is a pleasure for me to win here, I am really emotional. I couldn’t ask to do it at a better place.”
Wozniacki, a close friend of Williams, said: “Congratulations to Serena. She really deserved it today and played better than me.
Navratilova and Evert presented Williams with a gold bracelet to mark her“She is an inspiration to me on and off the court and an unbelievable friend – and you definitely owe drinks later!”
Williams arrived in New York having failed to make it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam in 2014, but the American looked a class apart throughout the two weeks at Flushing Meadows.
Her dominance was such that she won the title without dropping a set, or more than three games in a single set.
The case for Wozniacki heading into the final centred around the Dane’s improved form this summer, which saw her push Williams to three sets twice before reaching her first Grand Slam final for five years.
The 10th seed was fortunate that Williams was also struggling in the early stages, the American thumping a second serve well long to drop serve for the second time in game five.
But it was Williams who came out on top of five consecutive breaks before finally holding for a 5-2 lead, and converting her second set point after 40 minutes.
Wozniacki’s athletic defensive skills had not been enough to win a set in which Williams was making just 41% of first serves and, sure enough, the American stepped up her game in the second.
Top women’s Grand Slam singles titles winners |
|---|
| 24- Margaret Court (Aus) |
| 22- Steffi Graf (Ger) |
| 19- Helen Wills Moody (US) |
| 18- Martina Navratilova (US), Chris Evert (US), Serena Williams (US) |
| 12- Billie Jean King (US) |
Williams broke straight away, albeit thanks in part to a cruel net cord, and went close to moving 3-0 in front after a fabulous forehand winner.
It took 61 minutes for Wozniacki to hit her second winner of the match, a second ace, and she simply did not have the firepower to trouble the world number one.
A breathless 26-shot rally finally gave the 22,000 spectators a contest to engage with, but it took Williams to within two points of victory and there was no way back for Wozniacki.
Williams thumped her 29th winner of the afternoon to earn match point, and fell back onto the court in celebration when Wozniacki sent the ball long over the baseline.
Williams had beaten Wozniacki in eight of their previous nine meetings
Wozniacki hit just four winners during the match, with three of those aces
Defending champion Williams hit seven aces and 29 winners against Wozniacki
Williams becomes the second player in the Open Era to win three consecutive US Open titles, with Chris Evert winning four on the trot in the 1970s