Happy Serena reaches her goal
31/01/10 10:23 AM
An ecstatic Serena Williams spoke of her delight at drawing level with idol Billie-Jean King after ending the remarkable comeback run of Justine Henin at the Australian Open.

Playing in front of an admiring King and a host of other legends of the game including Australian Margaret Court, Williams prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to equal King with grand slam number 12 and revealed it was a dream come true.

"Billie, we're tied so I reached my goal," the 28-year-old said in her victory speech, turning towards King in the crowd.

"I feel really special that I was able to tie Billie Jean King," she added later.

"Because in my heart of hearts, I've been going for it and I haven't been able to quite achieve it.

"Billie Jean is a really big mentor of mine. She was a Fed Cup coach at one time, which was super cool. We had so much fun.

"She even visited me before the match today. To even be mentioned in the same breath as her is awesome."

It was Williams' fifth Australian Open title - a record in the Open era, having already won in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 - and broke her run of not winning in an even year.

"I never thought about it," Williams said of the victory with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup sitting beside her.

"I was always OK with winning on the odd years. I was totally OK with losing today or losing in the semis, because it meant that I would win next year.

"So now I don't know. I'm a little nervous. I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to win next year or not."

Emotions in check

Williams had entered the tournament under a cloud after a foul-mouthed tirade against a line judge at the US Open ended in her being fined $US175,000 and given a two-year good behaviour bond for the outburst.

Any subsequent offence at a grand slam could cost her a place at the US Open in 2010, 2011 or 2012, and the American kept her emotions in check throughout the tournament at Melbourne Park.

Williams had few reasons to get upset as she progressed through to the quarter-finals with comfortable victories courtesy of her powerful service game and groundstrokes.

By the time she met seventh seeded Belarussian Victoria Azarenka in the quarter-finals, she was the dominant force in the tournament.

She had not dropped a set or been broken in 31 service games in her four previous matches.

Azarenka ended that streak in the first game and held a one set and 4-0 lead before Williams finally woke up and began to reel off aces and service winners.

The pattern continued in the final against Henin, where at one point she lost 15 successive points, which had allowed the Belgian to take the second set and a 1-0 lead in the third.

"Well, I lost so many in a row I thought, 'gosh, I was up 15-40 at one point and could have broke her'," Williams said.

"I thought, 'well, at least I won the first set.'

"So in the third, I knew I would have chances again just to capitalise on that one chance in that one moment.

"I may have hit some aces. So that definitely helped me out. Honestly, the longer the match goes the better my serve gets."

Williams, who claimed her 11th grand slam doubles title with sister Venus on Friday, said the support from her older sibling helped her in the third set.

"She was really supportive out there today. I remember in the third set, I was down, and I heard her say, 'c'mon, Serena. It's OK, right here, right here'.

"That really got me pumped up."

Williams was so happy after the match that she made a half-hearted attempt to climb into her box to thank Venus after the match.

"I was like, 'OK, that's a hopeless cause'. I was thinking about going inside, taking the elevator and then going inside, but there's no way I would have made it."


Source: AFP/Reuters