I think I’ve had this whole Women’s tennis thing all wrong since the start of the US Open Series.
It (the US Open Series) seemed, initially, to be all about the long coronation of Serena as she returned to active play on the tour heading into the US Open. From the first tournament, the results supported that theory.
Serena came into Stanford ranked well past the top 100, and rolled through her matches en route to the title. After a week off she went to Toronto and rolled through her matches to take that title, beating Victoria Azarenka and Stosur along the way. A second round walkover came Sam the win in her match against Serena in Cincinnati. But by this time we all knew how this was going to play out: Serena holding the winner’s trophy after the US Open women’s final.
Someone forgot to tell all of this to Sam!
Nothing about Sam’s US Open Series performances showed that she was a favorite coming into this match with Serena. She was knocked out in the round of 16 at Stanford by Sabine Lisicki, lost to Serena in the finals of Toronto, and lost in the quarters of Cincinnati to Maria Sharapova. All three of those opponents were looked upon as bigger favorites for the US Open title than Sam Stosur. In fact Serena Williams was by far the prohibitive favorite.
Sam Stosur doesn’t have a flashy game. She serves big and hits a big forehand. Aided additionally by tremendous fitness, she puts herself into positions to win her matches by using her athletic assets. She never knows much emotion and is more often than not only seen wearing her sunglasses. So most people haven’t gotten a chance to see the potential champion’s heart that beats inside of her chest.
Her first Grand Slam moment in the sun came last year in the finals of the French Open against Francesca Schiavone. Sam was the favorite for that match and was outplayed from the outset by Francesca, who never gave Sam a chance to assert her serve or forehand. The loss was a tough one for Sam who, as they say Down Under, went walkabout for the remainder of last year and continued for much of this year. She kept her head down and kept working hard, however, hoping for another chance to prove herself. And she got that chance today.
Having played Serena many times before, she knew full well what to expect on all fronts: the shot-making, as well as the intimidation factor. She knew she had to be prepared for the circumstances so that she could just the match well from her side as well as she could. And that she did, winning by dominating the previously indomitable Serena. The writing had been on the wall for these past two weeks prior to the final, however, and none of us had bothered to notice.
Her path to the final had been a hard one, as she was a participant in both the longest US Open women’s match in history (since the implementation of tiebreaks) as well as the longest tiebreak in US Open history for a women’s match. She lost that battle but won the war against Kirilenko in 3 hard sets. By my estimation, Sam was on the court for a total of 688 minutes: 11 hours and 28 minutes of tennis, before she struck her first ball in the final against Serena. By contrast, Serena had only spent 454 minutes on court: 7 hours, 34 minutes. An almost 4 hour difference in play between the two over the 6 match total.
Given that much time on court, in particular another tough 3-setter in her semifinal against Angelique Kerber of Germany, it would have been easy to anoint Serena the favorite. In fact, I and many others did just that. The big factor that we missed in all of this was Sam’s heart and newly-toughened nerves of steel.
In past moments of this magnitude, Sam has played matches in a manner “not to lose” as opposed to “playing to win”. But one doesn’t get past the opponents she has beaten at this US Open, and in the way she has beaten those opponents with record-breaking performances, without acquiring the sense of purpose and resolve she showed in her victory over Serena.
We have seen it in others this championship as well. Novak Djokovic was facing two match points on the great Roger Federer’s serve deep in the fifth set of their semifinal. Federer hit a tough first serve out wide which Djokovic unflinchingly smacked crosscourt for a winner before walking to the other side to fight the second match point. It was a surreal moment that underscored many of the reasons why he has had one of the greatest years in history for any tennis player.
We’ve watched Serena do that same thing in the past, hitting winners on match points against her in big matches. One of the most famous was her 2005 Australian Open semifinal win over Maria Sharapova. Facing 3 match points, she smacked unreachable winners on two of them. Breath-taking and resolute shots.
Sam didn’t need to fight match points. Oddly enough, Serena was the one who needed to fight match points in this final. She fought off as many as she could but the writing was on the wall. Sam had delivered an unwavering performance, even AND in spite of what could have been a momentum shifting moment when she was given a “hindrance” point after a Serena shout on a forehand she believed would be a winner.
Stosur got her racquet on the ball for a feeble slice attempt, but could have potentially made a play on it if not for the verbal hindrance before her attempt. The chair umpire awarded the point to Stosur, which at 3-40 with Serena serving gave the game to Sam.
Serena, to her dis-credit, displayed a clear lack of character and championship behavior toward the chair umpire. The crowd, with no knowledge of any hindrance rule, began to boo incessantly as Sam went to serve. As well, they began to cheer on every Serena winner from that point on, believing that she had been cheated of a deuce opportunity.
It was potentially a very ugly moment in this women’s final, and definitely brought back bad memories of the incident two years ago when Serena was given a point penalty for verbally abusing a lineswoman at match point; causing her to lose her semifinal against Kim Clijsters.
Serena’s behavior aside, it all seemed extremely unfair to Sam. She had been playing well to that point, and was not responsible for Serena’s “come on” shout or the chair umpire’s hindrance ruling. She was simply trying to keep her head down and win her first major. The unfortunate effect was that she lost serve in the very next game after the incident.
After a Serena hold in the third game, it looked for all the world like this incident might have unfairly caused a momentum shift against her on many levels. She righted the ship, though, and held in the fourth game, continuing to batter Serena with huge forehands and deft slices that brought Ms. Williams to the net for “sitting duck” volley attempts.
Whatever momentum shift that had started became completely stalled as Serena’s errors increased and her resolve and court coverage wavered. Even after Serena fought off the first match point with a steely point ending in a nice overhead smash, the task was going to be too great for her to come back and defeat this inspired opponent on this day!
Sam never became involved in any of the court happenings today… at least nothing beyond simply sticking to her game plan of taking the match to Serena, making her respond to the barrage of forehands and serves. After all that she had endured this fortnight of US Open play (and non-play due to rain), this victory was well-deserved. Always regarded as one of the nicest players on tour, she can now be known as much more than that.
Sam Stosur, Grand Slam champion!