Serena Williams etched her name in tennis history on this day, beating sister Venus for her first Australian Open and completing a sweep of the slams. Serena battled to an emotional 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4 victory to become only the fifth woman to hold all four grand slams at once, a feat she is calling the ‘Serena slam’. Serena now joins Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in an exclusive pantheon of champions.
The match was played under cover in the Rod Laver Arena due to the extreme heat in Melbourne, where temperatures reached 108 degrees. It was only the third time in their 11 meetings that a match had gone to three sets. While the tennis wasn’t always the greatest, it was intriguing. There were junctures, particularly in the second and third sets, where both sisters chased down balls and slugged them with speed and power that no other woman can display. There were lots of long rallies and brilliance from both sides of the net.
