Sunday, April 20, 2008

It's Serena!

The Family Circle Cup championship match between Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva was all a fan could hope for until Zvonareva pulled one of the biggest chokes in recent history, double-faulting at 3-4 in the third set. Over and over, Zvonareva had come from behind. Though she occasionally controlled the rallies, she was usually defending against Williams' powerful serves and equally powerful returns of serve. And she was doing a hell of a job of it, too, using her backhand slice to force errors from Williams, and playing chicken with Williams right on top of the lines. Williams also had some trouble returning many of Zvonareva's second serves. Zvonareva, for her part, played much better when she was under pressure, at deuce points.

Things started falling apart for Zvonareva in the fourth game of the final set, when she controlled most of the rallies but still lost the game. In the next game, Williams lifted her entire game a notch, as she is known to do at crucial moments. It was in the eighth game that Zvonareva committed the two double-faults (of a total of eight), essentially taking herself out of competition.

Williams def. Zvonareva, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3

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