|
by Prip Serena Williams had apparently been struck with food poisoning a couple of days ago, but didn't look any worse for it as she started the match. Martina, however, looked like she was more than ready to go, and played absolutely amazing tennis to get the break to open, and take an early lead. Martina was absolutely brilliant, playing perhaps the best tennis seen from her ever, and totally blitzed Serena, who could hardly do anything to hurt her opponent. Martina's first serves were landing in, she was getting huge returns off Serena's serves, and her shots were all landing just on the baseline. Dropping the set 6-2, it looked like Serena would soon find herself cheering her sister on instead of taking her on. Serena found herself serving ahead once again, and managed to hold serve to open the second set. This was partly due to a drop in the quality of returns Martina was putting in. Throughout the first set, Martina's mentality had been all or nothing at all on the returns, and took a huge gamble in taking the ball early. The first set went fine, but as the match progressed, Martina found herself having to move a little further back. Her downfall came on her serve, which really started to let her down. Barely getting half of her first serves in, Martina's second serve was simply being killed by Serena. Serena got the break to go up 2-0, but couldn't hold on to her own service game, and lost the advantage. Nevertheless, Martina's returns got shorter and shorter, while her first serve percentage went lower and lower, and that combined to give Serena the crucial break to take the second set 6-3. Interestingly enough, Martina was actually hitting the ball harder than Serena in the baseline rallies. Serena had started to look dazed in the second set, sometimes even standing in the middle of the court after a point and looking like she didn't know what she was supposed to do next. A little boost in energy and nutrition from some "pink stuff" the trainer gave her soon remedied that, though, and Serena looked her usual self in the third set. Things could simply not get any worse for Martina. Serena was now blasting both her groundies and serves, leaving Martina very few options to turn things to her favour. With her own serve letting her down miserably, Martina soon found herself down 1-4, and minutes away from an early exit from the tournament. She can always count on the Aussie crowd, though, and as she stepped out on court, the cheers of encouragement in the closed stadium was remarkable. Engaging Serena in big rallies, she somehow managed to keep her game together, although there were errors coming from both sides, and got one break back to at least put some sense back in what was happening. The real task would be to hold. And a huge task it ended up being, too. Serena quickly went up 40-0, with three break points, and once again, it looked like the mach was all over. However, Martina played absolutely fearless tennis, saving all three break points and going on to actually hold to bring it to 3-4. Featuring fierce rallies that kept the crowd ooh-ing and aah-ing, the players showcased absolutely brilliant tennis at times, and shocking errors other times. Martina got the break back for 4-all, finally getting herself out of trouble, only to be thrown back in it. She promptly lost serve, put on the defense right from the beginning of each point. After all her hard work, she would be staring down the gun barrel, with Serena, arguably the best server on the tour, serving for the match. Serena's service game went to deuce, partly due to a double-fault. Martina held 2 separate break points, and both players sent each other running all over the court, throwing in drop-shots and lobs, but Martina finally got the break on a forced error from Serena. Martina played 2 quick points to go up 30-0, but threw the lead away for 30-all, pushing an easy volley long. At this point, she finally got a first serve in, getting a service return error off Serena, and threw her hands up in the air in celebration. An unforced error threw away game point, though, and Martina had to struggle really hard to hold serve for a 6-5 lead. Serena herself had a hard time on serve, but was always ahead, thanks to Martina alternating good points with unforced errors. She eventually did manage to hold, though, taking the match to 6-all. After all the effort the previous games had seen with both players struggling to hold on to their service games, Martina suddenly had a ridiculously easy service game. Finally getting the first serves in, Martina held serve at love, going up 7-6 and once again putting the pressure on Serena to deliver the goods. The first point went to Martina, with a line call on Serena's shot coming very late. Serena got a big serve in on the next point, but Martina came up with an even bigger return, and really attacked Serena's backhand side, drawing her to one side and then going for the angled shot in the open court. Serena managed to get to the ball, but couldn't do anything with it, putting Martina 2 points away from the match. Only luck prevented Serena from having to face 3 match points. Once again, she had put a big serve in, with Martina coming up with a great return. Serena just managed to get to the forehand, and her shot caught the tape and dribbled over the net, making it impossible for Martina to make a return. Spurred on a little, Serena played a very strong point, running Martina around the court before finishing it off with a winner. Trying to get the point wuickly, Serena threw another big serve in, but Martina was ready and waiting, and her return landed just inside the baseline. Serena's service motion was still taking her in the court, and she found the ball about to land behind where she was standing. Match point for Martina Hingis, after being 1-4 down in the final set. Once again, Lady Luck shone on Serena. Engaged in a baseline rally, a forehand of hers barely skimmed over the net, and Martina came in behind the short ball. With Martina barely leaving any space to be passed, Serena threw up a fantastic top-spinned lob, and Martina could only just barely get to the ball. Serena was waiting, though, and had wisely come in to net. Not taking any chances, she hit a beautiful drop volley, saving match point to a huge ovation. All her hard work was soon undone, as her 54th unforced error of the match gave Martina match point #2, and this time, Martina made sure not to let opportunity slip away and come back to haunt her. You could hear the crowd hold their breath as she saw the high ball coming across the net, and charged forward, racquet back, to take a huge swing at the double-handed backhand volley. She got the shot, but Serena (as only she and Venus can) got to the ball, and threw a high lob up. While lesser players would probably have choked at having to play two such big shots, Martina coolly slammed the overhead to take the game, set, and match. The exchange at the net was pleasant, but immediately at the back of everyone's minds would be the match tomorrow, between Martina and Venus. After such an emotionally and physically exhausting match as this, Martina would definitely have a hard time tomorrow, despite Venus displaying such erratic tennis. In the meantime, the tennis world can only wait in anticipation. |