Serena Williams (photo ©Emmett Anderson) reached the final defeating Alison Van Uytvanck, Vera Zvonareva, Elina Svitolina, Garbine Muguruza, Dominika Cibulkova and Madison Keys. So far she lost two sets: in the third round to Svitolina and in the fourth round to Muguruza. It’s her sixth Australian Open final and she won the previous five ones.
Maria Sharapova reached the final defeating Petra Martic, Alexandra Panova, Zarina Diyas, Shuai Peng, Eugenie Bouchard and Ekaterina Makarova. So far she lost only one set in the second round to Panova. It’s her fourth final at the Australian Open and she won the 2008 one.
Serena Williams is immediately aggressive with her return and breaks Maria Sharapova already in the first game. The Russian serves better in the next games but the American has now taken the lead. During the sixth game it starts raining and there’s a break. They close the roof very quickly and the match is resumed after just over ten minutes. The American is very ready and in the seventh game breaks her opponent again, serves for the set but is broken back. Williams makes up for that in the next game breaking Sharapova another time to close the first set 6-3.
In the second set Serena Williams has two break points in the second game but Maria Sharapova wins her service game. The Russian is a fighter and tries to be more aggressive offering a balanced set of great intensity. In the sixth game Sharapova offers another break point but wins her service game again. In the seventh game Williams is the one who offers a break point but she wins her service game as well. In the tenth game the Russian offers a break point which is also match point but again she wins a service game. They go to the tie-break, where the American loses her first service point but then comes back and takes a 4-1 lead. Sharapova can almost reach her at 5-4 but the American has two match points: the Russian cancels the first one but on the second one Williams scores an ace to win it 7-5, conquering the second set, the match and her sixth Australian Open title.
Maria Sharapova is an amazing fighter but her tennis skills are not enough against Serena Williams. Today she played a fantastic second set where she would’ve demolished most opponents, instead she lost it. She still offered a great show but she’s certainly not happy.
Serena Williams wasn’t even in her best conditions because she had some breathing trouble. Nothing serious and above all she has the weapons to face Maria Sharapova. It’s impossible to say something new about her: she’s simply an incredible player who won her 19th Grand Slam title.
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