Serena Williams has finally put together a winning run, collecting the Charleston title in commanding fashion. The American was in cruise control throughout the week, destroying her opponents at the expense of only 15th games, the least a champion has lost this year. This success is even more special for her as it marks her 40th WTA tour title. She also became only the third active player to have achieved the feat after her sister Venus, who has 45, and Kim Clijsters, who has 41 crowns.
Even though she won the 2002 French Open, Serena's history on clay is not that impressive. Nevertheless, in a time when clay has become faster than grass, the American is quickly emerging as a force to be reckoned with even on her least favourite surface. In Charleston, she started off with solid wins over Russian Elena Vesnina and New Zealander Marina Erakovic before taking advantage of Sabine Lisicki's twisted ankle to book her place in the semifinals. What followed were two of the best matches she's ever played in her career. This is how she described her incredible 6-1,6-1 victory over Sam Stosur in the last four and her even more astonishing 6-1,6-0 triumph over Czech Lucie Safarova in the grand finale. In these two encounters Serena was untouchable. After compiling a +14 differential against the Aussie (29 winners to 15 errors), Williams went even better against Safarova, hitting 27 winners and making just eight errors (a +19 differential).
Courtesy of the win, the American is projected to climb up a place, up to 9, when the new rankings will be released on Monday. And with no points to defends until the North American hardcourt summer, she looks set to regain the throne she lost because of the foot injury that kept her out of contention for a year.
photos: AP
photos: AP
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