(October 28th, 2012) After having what she considers one of her best seasons ever on tour, Serena Williams added an emphatic closing exclamation mark to 2012 with a straight sets win in the finals of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul.
Facing Maria Sharapova, whose last career victory against Williams came in the finals of the year-end championships back in 2004, it was Williams who looked slightly edgier at the start of the match as each women held serve in their opening games. Williams ripped a backhand winner to earn the first break of serve at 3-2 and could have gone up a double break on Sharapova's next service game before the Russian held on for 3-4.
Williams, who jumped out to 40-0 while serving for the first set at 5-4, saw Sharapova save two set points before Williams banged down her sixth ace to close out the set 6-4.
The pressure for Sharapova to stay even with Williams continued into the second set as Williams put away an easy smash winner to break Sharapova for a 1-0 lead. But while Williams at this juncture had already hit 25 winners to Sharapova's nine, the match still didn't feel inevitable for Williams as Sharapova continued to hold serve, forcing Williams each time to do the same to keep hold of her one game lead.
Williams, who never faced a break point all day, looked ready to end things when Sharapova served to stay in the match down 3-5. After Sharapova won the first point, Williams proceeded to reel off in succession three straight winners to earn two match points. A final massive forehand winner, her 40th of the match, sealed a convincing 6-4, 6-3 victory to give Williams her third year-end title of her career.
Though surprised when told later by Katrina Adams that she had not dropped a set all week, Williams admitted she had thought about losing to Sharapova the last time they played in a year-end final.
"I actually thought about it since the last time we played a championship she won. But she's ranked ahead of me so I felt like I didn't have anything to lose so just wanted to do the best that I could."
When asked if she considers 2012 one of the best seasons of her career with only four losses on the year, Williams said, "I think it pretty much is. There was a little bit of a slow start to it so I still think 2002 is my best season but there's always 2013 so I'm really looking forward to it."
Williams ends the year having won two Majors at Wimbledon and New York, two Olympic gold medals, and the titles at Charleston, Madrid, and Stanford.
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(Photo Credit: Andrzej Kentla) |