The Hindu : Sport : Serena steamrollers Safina for title

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Serena steamrollers Safina for title

Bhupathi-Knowles lose after winning the first set

— Photo: AP

ALL MINE: An ecstatic Serena Williams with the Australian Open trophy. She outplayed Dinara Safina in the final on Saturday.

MELBOURNE: Serena Williams thrashed Russia’s Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 to win her fourth Australian Open tennis title on Saturday, bringing up her 10th Grand Slam crown and reclaiming the World No. 1 ranking.

In one of the most one-sided deciders ever, the American utterly dominated third seed Safina, allowing her opponent to win only eight points in the first set on her way to claiming the championship in less than an hour.

“I’m so excited... I clearly love playing here and I get great support here. I don’t get that every place I go,” she said after winning the first women’s night final played at the Rod Laver Arena.

The win means Serena, 27, will take the World No. 1 ranking off Serb Jelena Jankovic.

Safina, whose brother Marat Safin won the men’s title here in 2005, had aimed to enter the history books as the part of the only brother-sister combination to hold Grand Slam titles.

Instead, she narrowly avoided entering the record books as being on the wrong end of the worst drubbing in a final in the tournament’s history.

“Serena was too good, I was only a ball boy on the court today,” the 22-year-old Russian said. “Sorry to the people who supported me, today I let you down a little bit but I’ll come back next year and try and do better.”

Only Steffi Graf in 1994 and Margaret Smith in 1962 have posted more comprehensive victories in the decider at the Australian Open, both winning 6-0, 6-2.

Serena continued a sequence of winning the Australian Open title in odd-numbered years, with her previous wins coming in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Safina also lost her only previous Grand Slam final at the French Open last year, but Serena was full of praise after the match. “Dinara has a good future,” she said. “She’s hitting the ball so hard I just had to go for broke. Thanks to her for putting on a great show for women’s tennis.”

Serena received an early confidence booster when she won the toss and comfortably heldserve to take the first game.

The American’s venomous groundstrokes immediately found their mark and she attacked Safina’s serve from the outset, with the rattled Russian coughing up three double faults to gift Serena her first break.

She then held Safina to love in the next, taking the score to 3-0 after just 11 minutes.

A shell-shocked Safina then went down another break as Serena relentlessly piled on the pressure to go up 6-0 against an opponent once noted for her emotional meltdowns.

Title drought

Mahesh Bhupathi’s seven-year Grand Slam title drought in men’s doubles continued after the Indian and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles squandered a one-set lead to go down 2-6, 7-5, 6-0 to Bob and Mike Bryan in a three-set final.

In a match which saw the third-seeded Indo-Bahamian pair’s fortunes nose-dive after the opening set, the second-seeded American brothers showed remarkable resilience to come out triumphant after over an hour-long battle.

It was a perfect start to the proceedings for Bhupathi and Knowles as they broke the Americans in the opening game before racing to a 3-1 lead. Bhupathi and Knowles broke the Bryans once again in the fifth game to wrap up the opener in just 27 minutes. — Agencies

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