By Chris Oddo | Sunday, August 23, 2015
Serena Williams defeated Simona Halep to clinch the Cincinnati title on Sunday. Next stop, New York City.
Photo Source: Christopher Levy
After a week-long battle with nerves and serves, World No. 1 Serena Williams found her swerve and rounded the final curve to New York with a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Simona Halep in the final of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.
More: Federer's Seventh Heaven in Cincinnati
“I'm so ready for New York,” Williams told reporters after her 69th WTA title was in the books. “Let's go, right?”
Though she certainly had her struggles over the course of the week, Williams rebounded nicely after a slow start on Sunday to play some convincing tennis, both from the service stripe and the baseline. It was enough to inspire some confidence in the 33-year-old as she prepares to make her bid for a fifth consecutive major title and 22nd overall, which would tie her on the Open Era Grand Slam title list with Steffi Graf.
"I think that playing Simona really tested me, and I felt like I was up for the challenge and up for the test," Williams told reporters after the match. "Final grade, I'm not sure yet. But I do know that--I think everyone here knows there is room for improvement for me and I can do better. At least I'm on the right track of going up and not back."
In Sunday's final Williams knocked back 15 aces and trimmed her double-fault count to two (she had hit nine double-faults in both the quarterfinals and semifinals in Cincinnati). When Halep began to pressure her in the second set by earning nine break points and converting one in the first two games, Williams responded by holding in the next four games before punching past the Romanian in an entertaining tiebreaker to secure her Cincinnati title defense.
“I tried just to keep fighting,” Halep said after the match, before further validating the return of Williams’ vaunted serve. “You know, it's not easy to return her serve. I had chances to break her, but she served really well in important moments.”
That hadn’t been the case for Williams for much of the week as a bevy of double-faults and less-than-stellar second-serve statistics had many concerned that Williams’ injured right elbow might be the villain that thwarts her run to the Calendar Slam, but the American quieted those fears with a steady backbeat of big first serves on Sunday.
As far as the elbow goes, the 21-time major champion stressed that the injury is in the past and said her problems stem from the loss of rhythm that her self-imposed hiatus from the tour this summer caused rather than any lingering effects of the injury.
“It's better now,” Williams assured reporters. “I just lost a lot of time because I had to rest it and I couldn't play Stanford because of my elbow. I had to pull out of the other tournament (Bastad) because of my elbow and I couldn't serve. I think that affected me a lot. Hopefully I'll just suck it up and get ready for the next three weeks.”
Williams said she plans to relax in Cincinnati for a day before heading to New York to practice and fulfill various media obligations.
Halep will also be heading to New York with confidence, despite a tough loss on Sunday. The Romanian has thrust herself into the US Open conversation with a run of fine play in North America that has seen her notch seven Top-25 wins and gut out many grueling matches. Thanks to back-to-back finals in Toronto and Cincinnati she’ll return to No. 2 in the WTA rankings on Monday, and receive the No. 2 seed at the US Open as a result.
Though she’s looking more and more like a player who is ready to win her first major, she deferred to Williams on court after the final, telling her rival “I know that you can do all four, so all the best and be strong.”
Strength has never been an issue for Williams. Nor has speed, intelligence or desire. If there’s anything that can hold her back from becoming the first player in 27 years to win the Calendar Slam it would be her health. With those issues fading, there doesn’t appear to be much that can get in the way of Serena Williams this summer.
An oft-validated tennis theory: As pressure mounts, so does the level of Williams’ tennis. Why should we expect anything else but that in three weeks’ time?
No matter the outcome, Williams wants to get this show on the road.
“Yeah, I'm ready,” she said. “I don't care if I win or lose or break even. I'm ready to start it, get it over with, and be done and go on to the next event.”