But it seemed that Masha was able to arrange a revolution. She arrived at the tournament in the rank of a favorite, having remained the day before without her main rival - Belgian Justine Henin-Ardenne, passionate about the divorce process. In Melbourne, Sharapova reached the finals - the Russians had never succeeded there before. The last obstacle to the title was American Serena Williams, who had not been on the court for more than six months due to an injury.
The youngest of the black sisters, of course, is always dangerous, no matter in what form. But her game in Australia was not outstanding. Confident victories alternated with tortured ones. And no one saw tennis, which would give reason to seriously evaluate the chances of an American for the final victory. However, the very fact that the tennis player, who occupied 81st place in the WTA ranking, reached the finals spoke about Serena’s unpredictability. And in decisive matches such rivals are always very dangerous.
Moreover, tennis Sharapova did not pull on the definition of "ideal." In recent matches, Maria, despite her victories, made too many mistakes. They could not be avoided in the final. They determined its outcome.
Already the first break Williams in the second game of the starting set made me wonder: who is the favorite in the match? The American began the game extremely concentrated.
Sharapova, on the other hand, not only physically could not keep up with the powerful and accurate blows of her rival, but also demonstrated discomfort with psychology. What else can explain such a low percentage of first innings - 51? And the second (of course, more careful) Williams often took right through. As a result, the first set took a little more than half an hour and ended in a rout for Masha.
The hope that she would gather for the second batch, and Serena would simply not have enough physical form, remained. But Sharapova began the set with a double mistake on her pitch. It became clear that her problems were much more serious than thought. Everything repeated. And when Williams made two breaks and led 4-0, even Masha’s father had no illusions about the result. Usually actively prompting from the rostrum, he condescendingly and tacitly reacted to his daughter's confused glances in his direction.
“The reason for my defeat and mistakes, first of all, is in Serena,” Sharapova will say at the end of the game. “She acted just perfectly and this shook my faith in herself. But I hope that this season will have more than once a chance to take revenge.”
Thus, Serena won the Australian Open for the third time. Her previous victories are dated 2003 and 2005. An enviable frequency of success - strictly in odd years! Today, she became just the second tennis player in the history of the tournament, who managed to go the Melbourne path to the end, not being seeded.
And returning to the tradition sad for the Russians, we continue to believe in its imminent end. The successes of 15-year-old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova hint at that. For the second time in a row, she won this tournament in the junior category, defeating the American Madison Brengle in the final - 7: 6, 7: 6.
Andrey IVANTSOV