It was supposed to be just a formality, a gateway to that happening we now have come to expect: an all-Williams final. After all, Wimbledon IS Williams. Williams IS Wimbledon. We were destined on Saturday the Fourth of July to see the fourth Williams vs. Williams Wimbledon final and the eighth all-Williams Slam final.
On other courts, Serena and Venus may show vulnerability (think Paris) or even indifference. But this isn’t Madrid. Here, they’re feared. Their games explode. This is grass, we’ve got you by the throat. Their ferocity aroused, they’re predators – merciless and unsparing. The staid surroundings simply frame the intensity of their will: refined setting, explosive athleticism.
Serena Williams, who owns 10 Slam titles and the mythical Serena Slam (when she won four majors in a row in ’02 and ’03), was to face the quick Elena Dementieva, the same woman who last summer ruined her Olympic dreams.
At first, when the lean, elegant Russian comes to mind, we think of fragility and the most liable shot among elite players – the lollipop serve that has betrayed her so often. The best player of her generation not to win a major (she’s reached two finals and six semis), Dementieva is a fluid athlete of beauty. Her ground game is nothing less than sublime. No one moves as poetically as Federer at the baseline. But Dementieva appeals.
But certainly on the Wimbledon turf, Ms. Dementieva would merely be a good warm-up who wouldn’t have enough to contain the storm that is Serena at Slams. Few picked her to prevail. And, as if on cue, Serena began her semi Thursday against Elena with an ace.
But on this brilliant, blue-sky day on the tattered green grass a new script was written by the re-invented Dementieva, who is no longer but a powder puff. A still-determined veteran of 11 seasons and long a key foot soldier in the Russian Revolution, Dementieva still has that refined look out there. But she’s a bit more ripped and she has rehabilitated her liability.
This is like Wilt Chamberlain or Shaq mastering foul shooting. Sergio Garcia becoming a master putter. Or T.O. (Terrel Owens) learning to blend in on his football team. So, miracle of miracles, after much hard work, Dementieva’s serve, even under some pressure, seems rather fine, thank you very much. Fans wondered at a Dementieva 112 mph ace, and the Russian was actually the tougher of the two in a first set tiebreak. Once a swan, now a much tougher cookie, Elena took advantage of some awkward Serena forehands to grab the breaker 7-3.
But there’s reason why Serena Williams is known as the toughest fighter, the most willful player, the fiercest competitor and the best clutch performer on the WTA farm. Despite her tired legs and some awkward miffs, she took advantage of two critical Hawk-Eye calls and cranked up her fierce serve (she unleashed 20 aces) to win the second set and stay very much in the conversation in the third.
She came back from 3-1 down in the final set and fought off a memorable match point at 5-4 with an ambitious net charge and a fine backhand volley off a powerful passing shot attempt (that Dementieva will forever wish she had hit down the line.)
Booming serves and all but daring Dementieva to stay with her, Serena finally prevailed 6-7(4), 7-5, 8-6 in 2 hours, 49 minutes – the longest women’s match of the Open Era.
Looking onto most, but not all of the riveting affair, was none other than Richard Williams, who we spoke to IT just minutes after the Serena’s stunning win.
“Serena, she gave me heartburn out there. She really did. I couldn’t take it,” said the proud but shaken father. “But I saw it coming this morning at practice. She just wasn’t close to doing what she can do. Her feet were off. She wasn’t turning and getting her racket back. She wasn’t moving. She seemed like she was in concrete standing still. I think Serena is hurting, that she is having a problem with her knee and Venus is having a problem with her knee. Serena hurt her left knee and her left ankle in Key Biscayne and it hasn’t been right since. When she hits hitting her backhand she can’t push down. I tried to get her to get down, but she pops up so fast. [But] Serena has more fight than any other player I’ve ever seen in my life. She don’t never, never give up. It’s a dangerous thing playing Serena, thinking you have her beat. It’s very dangerous. You might lose. Steffi and Monica had that fight, but I would say that they didn’t have as much as Serena. She has the ability to be down match point and somehow has the ability to bring it back. Its something you can’t teach. That’s something I saw when she was young. To this day, Serena hates to lose. She has an inner belief in herself. You saw her come into net on match point to put more pressure on the girl. I used to teach them: if you are going to beat me, beat me. Make them beat you. I used to teach them that. As for Venus, I know she is going to make it to the final.”
