2005 Australian Open - Day #11
By Alix Ramsay  |  January 27, 2005

Revenge is sweet. It is also exhausting. After taking a pasting from Maria Sharapova in the Wimbledon final and having to accept an injury-induced defeat from the Russian at the WTA Tour Championships, Serena Williams finally got her own back. It took 2hrs 39mins mind you, and it was touch and go all the way through to the latter stages of the third set, but Williams reached the final of the Australian Open, beating Sharapova 2-6, 7-5, 8-6.

It is 18 months since Williams last won a grand slam, heady days when she was still ranked No.1 and coming off the back of the 'Serena Slam' - four consecutive grand slam titles mopped up between the French Open 2002 and the Australian Open 2003. Apart from a bad-tempered hiccup at the French Open that year - she lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne in the semi finals - she was unstoppable.

That was when it all started to go wrong. A combination of injuries, family tragedy and her various off-court activities (anything from fashion shows to film appearances to boyfriends) broke the spell. Vulnerable for the first time, she was either absent without leave or, on the rare occasions when she played, far below her best. She has still insisted that she is the best but no one has been ready to believe it until she stumped up a major win.

Even here she has looked ill-prepared for the long road of a grand slam tournament. She is still stronger than most of her opponents but the muscles have lost their tone and she has spent the past 11 days gulping down air in the ferocious heat. Only the fact that no one has been either willing or able to push her has allowed Williams's weakness to go unpunished.

Sharapova, though, was different. The Russian is, according to Martina Hingis, "as mean as a snake" and she cannot bear the thought of losing. Not only could she push Williams, she would happily have torn her to shreds. And that, in turn, brought the best out of the former champion.

This was personal. This was important. And, once the first set was over, this was going to be good. As her father, Richard, had always said - Serena was the fighter of the clan and it was best not to mess with her. The possibility that Sharapova could register a third victory over her added steel to her resolve and even as she was throwing away the first set, there was blood in her eye.

If anyone doubted how much the match meant to either woman, they only had to listen to the grunting. It was ear-splitting. Even Williams, a grunter of quite spectacular proportions, was taken aback by the shrieking coming from the other side of the net. With Sharapova, the howl as she hits the ball is not a comment on the effort but rather a statement of intent. Not that Williams was going to complain - merely admire from a distance.

"It's pretty loud," she said, "but I also grunt really loud sometimes. A grunt, whether you have one or not, can work for you or against you. She was better off grunting."

The grunt - together with the forehand and the serve - twice took Sharapova to the point where she was serving for the match and presented her with three match points. That was the time to see who was punching above their weight and, this time at least, it was Sharapova who proved the light weight. She had her chances and she let them slip. Once Williams had spotted the merest hint of frailty, she dug deep and went for the kill.

"I'm still the top fighter out here," she announced with justifiable pride. "Those are always the best wins, when you're down match point because that's when you realize that you can't give up. Personally, I never give up but I thought: OK, I definitely don't want to give up now."

Lindsay Davenport knows just how Williams feels. She took more than two hours to get past Nathalie Dechy 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 and for the first set and the latter part of the second, she looked to be on her way home. Then again, Davenport is battle-hardened having come through a three set marathon against Alicia Molik in the quarterfinals, winning 9-7 in the third.

The fact that Dechy was in the last four took everyone by surprise. The Frenchwoman has been happily bumbling around the tour for a decade earning a reputation for being rather talented and absolutely charming. Alas, she had the killer instinct of a wet lettuce and had reached so much as a quarterfinal of a grand slam before.

Sven Groeneveld sorted all of that out. He started working with Dechy after the US Open last year and within weeks he had given her a new edge, a fighting spirit and a belief in her own abilities. Having coached Mary Pierce to two grand slam finals and the Australian Open title between 1994 an 1997 and having taken Michael Stich to the French Open final in 1996 - the German's least favorite surface - he knows a thing or two about success at major tournaments.

It was not quite enough to counter the power and precision of Davenport, though. After a sluggish start, Davenport started laying into her shots and forcing Dechy to make the mistakes. It may be five years since she last won a grand slam - here in 2000 - but she knows what it takes and she made it clear that Dechy did not. When the chips were down at the very last, it was Dechy who wilted under the pressure.

Now Davenport has to try the same trick with Williams. The sensible money is on Williams - she has a 7-1 lead over the world No.1 - but so is the pressure. She desperately needs a grand slam victory to put her back into the mix at the top of the rankings while Davenport, who was discussing retirement plans just six months ago, has nothing to prove to anyone. The only certainty is that it will not be a match for the faint hearted.

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