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| Serena Williams blows away Ana Ivanovic to win in Cincinnati | Serena Williams blows away Ana Ivanovic to win in Cincinnati |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Serena Williams is back. She did not so much cruise in the final of the Western & Southern Open here on Sunday as hobble distractedly but rediscovered her zest to blow Ana Ivanovic off the court in little over an hour. The American will be desperately hard to stop in the US Open next week if she can sustain this level of concentration and power. | Serena Williams is back. She did not so much cruise in the final of the Western & Southern Open here on Sunday as hobble distractedly but rediscovered her zest to blow Ana Ivanovic off the court in little over an hour. The American will be desperately hard to stop in the US Open next week if she can sustain this level of concentration and power. |
| She stroked 12 aces and just 14 unforced errors – in marked contrast to her mistake-riddled win over Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals. Why she is so up and down remains a mystery; perhaps she is husbanding her resources after three tournaments in three weeks, a commitment to the Tour she hasn’t made since 2007. | She stroked 12 aces and just 14 unforced errors – in marked contrast to her mistake-riddled win over Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals. Why she is so up and down remains a mystery; perhaps she is husbanding her resources after three tournaments in three weeks, a commitment to the Tour she hasn’t made since 2007. |
| American TV works in mysterious ways, but shifting the final to the ESPN News channel from ESPN2 to accommodate extended coverage of the Little League World Series seemed perverse. Five-foot high kids struggling to hit the ball to the fence did not seem to stack up against the 120mph-plus serving of Williams and the edgy play of Ivanovic as elite athletic performance. | American TV works in mysterious ways, but shifting the final to the ESPN News channel from ESPN2 to accommodate extended coverage of the Little League World Series seemed perverse. Five-foot high kids struggling to hit the ball to the fence did not seem to stack up against the 120mph-plus serving of Williams and the edgy play of Ivanovic as elite athletic performance. |
| Still, that’s a side issue; they got back on the main channel towards the end of the first set. On court, the action was worthy of the widest possible audience and the 11,455 spectators who filled all the seats on Centre Court (13 of the 14 sessions all week were sold out, pushing total numbers past last year’s 187,000) got better value for money than did the previous afternoon. | |
| Ivanovic looked to have emerged unscathed from the complaint that forced her to collapse clutching her stomach in the third set of a wild and entertaining contest against Maria Sharapova on Saturday night. | |
| The world No11 led 3-1 against the slow-starting Williams, but could not hang on to it, despite producing several crowd-pleasing winners, most of them on the run as Williams forced her deep and wide. | |
| Again – and this is a recurring theme – the fans seemed to be with whoever was on the other side of the net from Williams, sufficiently to make it incongruous. Is she too dominant for their tastes? Too aloof? It might be the fans just wanted a contest. They don’t always get that when Williams is in full flow, and Ivanovic did her best to oblige them. | |
| However, even underdone – as she has been for some time – Williams is too strong for nearly anyone in the game. Her serve, shaky at first, grew in power and precision and had too many free points in the bag for Ivanovic to mount a sustained response. Once she had broken the Serb’s resistance, Williams cruised to the finish, serving out to love with two aces after just over an hour. She is in perfect mood and shape for Flushing Meadows. | However, even underdone – as she has been for some time – Williams is too strong for nearly anyone in the game. Her serve, shaky at first, grew in power and precision and had too many free points in the bag for Ivanovic to mount a sustained response. Once she had broken the Serb’s resistance, Williams cruised to the finish, serving out to love with two aces after just over an hour. She is in perfect mood and shape for Flushing Meadows. |
| Ivanovic could also be a threat. She will move up to No9, giving her an eighth seeding, and will draw comfort from the way she tamed Sharapova in the semis. | |
| Earlier, the Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, were hugely popular winners against the rising duo of Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil, taking the doubles title 6-3, 6-2 without fuss, as well as evening the score after losing to them in the Wimbledon final. It was a first loss as a young team for American Sock and his Canadian partner. Always good to watch, doubles just got more interesting. | Earlier, the Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, were hugely popular winners against the rising duo of Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil, taking the doubles title 6-3, 6-2 without fuss, as well as evening the score after losing to them in the Wimbledon final. It was a first loss as a young team for American Sock and his Canadian partner. Always good to watch, doubles just got more interesting. |