Less than a week ago, I said I did not think we would have an all-Williams final. I expected one of the sisters (I really didn't know which, but I was leaning toward Serena) to make it to the final, but not both. Silly me.Though Tamarine Tanasugarn had a good shot at defeating Venus, she choked and blew it away. Elena Dementieva got off to a disastrous start in her semifinal, and while she picked up her game considerably in the second set, it was not good enough to take Venus to a third set. Serena's opponent, Zheng Jie, also got off to a bad start. At 5-1 in the first set, Williams leading, the rain came. I suspected the rain delay to be a real boost for Zheng. and she came back in a much improved state. But again--she didn't have enough (though she held a set point) to take a big-serving Serena to a third set (perhaps she should have taken one of those rain delay naps that appeared to help Marion Bartoli come back after several rainstorms and kick everyone's ass).
Williams hit fourteen aces and--how strange is this for Serena?--only twelve unforced errors for the match. She had a first serve percentage of 65 (so did Zheng), a first serve win percentage of 87, and a second serve win percentage of 52. She serves like that tomorrow, and she wins the championship.
Excuse me now while I hit myself on the head and say repeatedly, "Never count out a Williams sister, never count out a Williams sister..."
