Quite expectedly, Serena Williams, women’s top-ranked player in the world, won the 2014 US open for the third consecutive year. The American gave no chance to Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in the women’s singles final on Sunday. By her victory, Serena also reached a coveted milestone of winning 18 Grand Slam titles in her illustrious career lasting close to two decades. During this period, Serena, along with sister Venus, dominated women’s tennis scene to the extent that other players found it difficult to match the skills of the Williams sisters. Cracks have appeared in Serena’s game now and she has had injury issues but she is still WTA’s No.1 ranked player. Her 2014 performance has been ridden with losses in several tournaments, including year’s first three Grand Slams but on Sunday, she proved her mettle in the straight sets victory over the talented Dane. In Sunday’s other notable match, America’s famous Tennis twins, Bob and Mike Bryan recorded their 100th men’s doubles victory of their career, playing together. In the final on Sunday, the brothers defeated 11th seeded Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez in straight sets. It was Bryan Twins’ 5th US open and 16th Grand Slam victory.
Serena Williams was 17 year old in 1999, when she handed out a 6-3, 7-6 straight set defeat to the shocked Martina Hingis of Switzerland in the US open women’s final. After that, she recorded 4 more victories in US Grand Slam. When she took to the court at the Arthur Ashe stadium on Sunday against Caroline Wozniacki, Serena was the runaway favorite. The match started with a poor show from both players, who committed numerous unforced errors. Wozniacki has had a great tournament, until she reached the final but on Sunday the sparks had gone out of her game. The Dane actually needed a strong start but instead she began with two double faults in her opening service game. Wozniacki was lucky that Serena also struggled and dropped her serve on two occasions. However, the No.1 seed composed herself and reeled out five consecutive breaks of serves and took a 5-2 lead. On her serve next, Serena held two set points, of which she converted the second to take the set 6-3 after 40 minutes of struggling play. In the second set, Serena stepped her game and looked like the player, people have known. She began the second set by breaking straightaway, helped by a lucky net-cord and raced to a 3-0 lead with a marvelous forehand winner. Wozniacki couldn’t match Serena on Sunday and took one hour to produce her second winner of the match. The only time the game got lit up was when the two players exchanged a 26-shot rally. But by then, Serena had already come to within two points of closing the match. Her winning stroke was the 29th winner, which Wozniacki returned too long. As the ball sailed over the baseline, Serena dropped herself on the court and cried in celebration. The 6-3, 6-3 victory took Serena to equal 18 grand slam victories, achieved earlier by four players in US Open history. Of these two were present to hand over the trophy to Serena. It was a proud moment for Serena to be flanked on either side by Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
America’s famous tennis twins Bob and Mike Bryan became the first doubles pair to win 100 titles together, when they beat 11th seeded Spanish pair of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-3, 6-4 in the men’s doubles final on Sunday. The world’s top ranked doubles players broke the Spaniards’ service in the fourth game and kept holding their serves to win the first set 6-3. The story was same in the second, when the brothers broke in the seventh game. The Spanish pair didn’t have the armory to deal with the Bryan’s game afterwards. The match ended, when the left-handed Bob Bryan served out the final game of the match.
Earlier on Saturday, the Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina won the women’s doubles final, when the beat Swiss Martina Hingis and Italian Flavia Pennetta 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Though the Russians lost the first set, they came back strongly in the second to earn their second Grand Slam victory, after they won the 2013 French Open. For Makarova, it was a great tournament as she had also progressed to the women’s singles semifinal, where she lost to the eventual champion Serena Williams.
