Serena beats Venus in WTA championships final
DOHA, Qatar (AP)—Serena Williams said she didn’t arrive at the Sony Ericsson Championships expecting to win.
Plenty of other people did that for her.
Williams bested big sister Venus again Sunday, winning 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the season-ending tournament for her third victory of the season. Williams also won Wimbledon and the Australian Open, and clinched the year-end No. ranking earlier in the week.
“It feels great,” said Serena, who also won the WTA Tour’s season-ending event in 2001. “I totally didn’t expect to come here and win.”
Serena broke twice in the first set and lost only seven points on serve. She looked sharper than Venus in every facet of a match that featured few long rallies and only a glimmer of the spectacular tennis the two have provided in some of their previous meetings.
Serena sealed the match with a crosscourt forehand winner and celebrated with a simple fist pump before hugging her sister at the net.
“I don’t think I returned as well as I wanted to,” said Venus, the defending champion, who played four late-night matches that each lasted three sets during the week. “Sometimes I made her service games a bit too easy.”
It was Serena’s fourth straight win over her sister. She also beat Venus in the round-robin stage of the Doha tournament, the Wimbledon final and the semifinals in Miami this year. She leads their head-to-head record 13-10.
“Playing a final against Venus is really tough,” Serena said. “Even though she wasn’t really feeling great, she kept hitting every ball back.
“I haven’t won a tournament that wasn’t a Grand Slam in a while, so that was even more exciting,” she added. “My losing streak in (other) tournaments is over.”
Serena earned $1.55 million for the win after finishing the event undefeated, bringing her total prize money for the year to a record $6.19 million. Justine Henin had the previous record of $5.43 million in 2007.
The tournament featured the eight top-ranked women in the world divided into two groups, with the semifinalists decided by a round-robin stage.
Venus lost two of her three round-robin matches but still advanced. She then rallied for a three-set win over Jelena Jankovic on Saturday but looked sluggish from the start in the final.
“It was the end of the season, so I have no complaints,” Venus said about her fitness level. “You have to show up and play no matter what. So that had nothing to do with it.”
Venus played with her left knee strapped while Serena had strapping on her left thigh.
“We definitely weren’t physically 100 percent out there today,” said Serena, a day after pulling out of next weekend’s Fed Cup final against Italy. “Right now, I’m just struggling in every aspect of my body.”
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Absolute Gospel Truth ;-)
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I am a demon and my name is WOE. I have existed since the beginning of time. Like the rest of my brotheren, it is my objective to seek out people who may try to bring light into dark places and run them away. It is in darkness that I can hide and perform my deeds undetected and convince people that I do not exist. I cannot stand you people with your flickering candles murmering about good this and good that...BE GONE with your weak pleading and crying. I have defeated much greater than you whom I consider to be a minor irritation. The people here don't need or want you here. Don't you see how they ignore you? You are more blind than they. I will continue just as I please until you realize to yourself WOE IS ME. I now have people here who are on automatic and all I have to do is make sure people like you don't come in here stirring things up. You are a nobody and your faith is very weak. Your God will not save you because I have brothers working on you right now. SAVE YOURSELF while you still can...at least for a while. I have a brother named DESPAIR that I will have to come into your life and another brother named MISERY who, when teamed together will make your life a living hell. SAVE YOURSELF while there is still time.
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Lest I misunderstand. What you are saying (on the other thread) is you handle this the way you see best (as you are entitled to) and I should do the same (as I am entitled to), OR, do I not remain true to myself and jump on the band-wagon and be not be pro-active in my own way?
Isn't it almost Scriptural-like insomuch as we don't want to stay "in" the world so much as "of" the world defending this degenerative tripe. I know it's generalization, but doesn't this make sense to you, or does it?
I read something somewhere this afternoon about Serena (don't even know where or what any more) because there are so many and it would seem the more who post here making blatant racial slurs just incite and encourage others to do so. It's like "copy-cat" blogging John. It's insidious. People do tap into other's motives here AND they exploit that!
My approach is certainly not that acerbic, although, as you know, I am definitive and stand firm in what I say, but it's the only way I know to approach and my way of simply stating what I think about a particular thing.
I wrote Karen responding to a really "awful" post earlier which read, and it was vile.
I do think the more vile & despicable the post, the most attention it gets, then the more happy (gleeful) these posters are. Doesn't this feed their desire to simply try to outdo their last post? Rather a double-edged blade?
As always will be looking forward to your insight :-)
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If you go to that site and be a little more direct, I most certainly will reply or shall I say HE will reply.
I was doing yard work or I would have replied sooner. Peace.
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If you go to that site and be a little more direct, I most certainly will reply or shall I say HE will reply.
I was doing yard work or I would have replied sooner. Peace.
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John, I wrote and asked you a question on the other thread, the one about Serena setting the WTA season record on "Prize Money Mark"..take a look would you :-) I'm interested in your opinion~
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Stay thirsty my friends.
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1, Singles Tennis has always been the main focus of the sport( the rugged individualism that is absent from doubles);
2. There is the perception that a player does not have to be as skilled to play doubles
3. There is a perception that you play doubles if your skills have diminished-thus giving the impression that it is a phase of the sport for "old folks"
4.There is the impresson that doubles is playd for"fun" and not for competition
5, People who see tennis as an excercise format for themselves look at it from a singles point of view
6. There are very few doubles teams that are recognizable as long term partners
7. Tournaments seem to relegate doubles to a secondary status
8. Top singles players pull out of doubles when they feel it jeopardizes their ability to do well in the singles draw
9. There is not enough controversey in doubles...controvesey sells big time
10. How many products do you know of that are marketed for doubles players?
There are other reasons, but you get the point..don't you?
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i actually watched it but what i mean is...news coverage. there is nothing among these articles that emphasise the doubles championships unless its the sisters or the bryan brothers. how about a little news for them? i mean the spanish pair upset venus and serena in a tight match,which is pretty big news considering they've won three slams in doubles this year. then this thrilling,nail-biting final...
personally if networks,not just tennis channel or during slams,broadcast doubles more often i think more people would get interested in it.
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Thank you for the information! I kept thinking I had read about his added tournament at the year's end in Bali, but hadn't read anything on Yahoo (BIG SURPRISE!!)~
There are some terrific players in that one too!!! Kimiko will be playing and I've so much enjoyed her "come-back" story this year!!! Good luck to her and all these ladies next week!!!
I hope all (can) manage to stay healthy! This is a tough time of the year for anyone who has played a full calendar of events for the season :-)
The Ladies Doubles Final was terrific!! TTC had it live. Really enjoyable tennis and a surprise that the ladies from Spain beat Black and Huber. (probably misspelled that).
I need to go to bed, I'm making all kinds of mistakes now :-)
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ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA - The field has been set for the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, a season-ending event for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's top International tournament winners. Marion Bartoli, Samantha Stosur, Yanina Wickmayer, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Shahar Peer, Melinda Czink, Agnes Szavay, Aravane Rezai and Magdalena Rybarikova have qualified, while Kimiko Date Krumm and Sabine Lisicki have accepted invitations as tournament wildcards to round out the playing field at the inaugural event. Additionally, Vera Dushevina will travel to Bali as an alternate.
Making its debut in Bali, Indonesia from November 4-8, 2009, the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions features established and next generation stars competing in an innovative 12-woman round robin singles format (four groups of three players), and offers $600,000 in prize money. The top 10 highest-ranked players who have won an International tournament during the 2009 season on the Tour and who are not competing at the Sony Ericsson Championships - Doha 2009 (which features the top eight singles players in the world) qualify for the event. The Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions represents the championships for the International tournaments, bringing a season-long link and race tying together the International events.
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