Shaky Serena wins fifth title in Miami

Overcomes forehand jitters and second set breakdown to win

FROM THE SONY ERICSSON OPEN IN MIAMI – Serena Williams could have finished her final against Jelena Jankovic in under an hour when she was leading 6-1, 3-0 and a double break, but instead her game fell apart and she needed an eventual 2 hours and 26 minutes to defeat her Serbian opponent, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

“I don’t know if I was nervous,” Serena said. “I know I got tight. I guess you can classify that as nervous.”

The match started off well with several great winners from both players, but after Jankovic blew a 40-15 lead on her own serve at 1-2 and ended up double faulting to lose the game, the level of the match started to deteriorate.

First, it was Jankovic who was starting to go on defense too much and was punished for it by Serena. Her serve was weak as usual as she merely used her delivery to get a point going, which against one of the Williamses is just not good enough.

Serena cruised to win the set 6-1 and rolled on to a 3-0 lead in the second. Just when it seemed she had the match in the bag, her forehand started to come apart. Serving for the set at 5-4, Serena played her worst game of the match, throwing in two double faults, a forehand error and a long backhand volley off a weak approach shot, to lose the game at love.

Serena held a 0-40 lead in the next game, but three forehand misses denied her another break. To complete the misery, Serena double faulted on Jankovic’ first set point to lose 7-5.

After losing the second set, Serena recovered well to directly break serve and go 1-0 up in the third. Jankovic called for a medical timeout, as she was once again having some physical issues.

“I started to feel a little dizzy in the court, light headed like when I blow my nose my ears were popping like when you’re on the airplane,” Jankovic said. “I kept coughing and coughing and I coughed my way through the tournament.”

Jankovic got to 15-30 in Serena’s first service game of the set, but then netted an easy forehand from the serviceline, which should have given her two break points. JJ broke down completely as she fell behind to 5-0.

She was complaining a lot about the noisy crowd, which kept cheering after first serve misses, and there were some ‘fans’ who couldn’t help but shout at when a player was getting ready to serve. Umpire Lynn Welsh must have called upon the fans to remain quiet at least a dozen times throughout the match.

Still, Jankovic should have known better to remain focused on her game after the way she completely melted down against Justine Henin in the ’06 US Open semis over a dubious line call. That cost her the match, and her complaining today made her lose focus, too.

With the finish line in sight, Serena faltered again as she produced another handful of ugly forehand misses. “She looked so nervous out there,” said Jankovic. “I could not believe that a girl who has won so many Grand Slams, so many tournaments, could be that nervous, you know, closing out a match.”

Serena blew a series of match points, including a 40-0 lead on her own serve at 5-2. When she lost that game, she shattered her racket on the ground and then smacked it away, almost hitting a group of photographers.

“That was scary, to be honest,” Jankovic said. “Really, I told her after the match, ‘you really smashed that racket to pieces’. She’s like, ‘I had to’.”

“When that happened I was able to relax,” Serena explained. “I knew I was going to win it at that point. And the racket was getting on my nerves. He had to go.”

Serena wasted two more match points from 0-40 up, before she eventually pounded an overhead on her seventh championship point, to successfully defend her title in Miami.

“I beat her in Australia, so I had to be nice and let her defend her title.” Jankovic laughed. “I’ll be waiting for her in one of the clay tournaments when we play in Europe and I have more fans.”

With her fifth win in Miami, Serena tied the record of Steffi Graf, who also claimed five crowns in South-Florida. She feels she is now ready to do well throughout the year.

“Especially now I feel like all I want to do is play tennis, and all I want to do is be the best and win. My whole life is dedicated to nothing but tennis. I’ve been working so hard, and I feel like everything will come together in time.”

We’ve heard those statements coming from Serena over and over again, so we’ll have to see it before we believe it. She’s on the right track though, and with Justine Henin struggling, she might go on to achieve great things in 2008.