U.S. Open: S. Williams d. Ivanovic

NEW YORK—The last time Serena Williams played a Serbian brunette kitted out in a fashionable yellow tennis dress at the U.S. Open was in 2008, and her opponent was Jelena Jankovic. That match was a prime-time final, and Williams won it, 6-4, 7-5. It was the last title she’s won at her home Grand Slam.

Tonight, the rival was Ana Ivanovic, a former No. 1 and Grand Slam champion, and the match—and results—were similar. Williams won it, 6-1, 6-3, and could be forgiving for hoping it’s an omen. Given that her semifinal opponent will be 5’4” Sara Errani, who’s never won a Grand Slam final or even come anywhere near a final until a few months ago in Paris, you can see how she might feel that way.

Once again, Serena had a terrific night at the service notch. She cracked a dozen aces and won 26 of the 29 points when she put her first serve into play. She’s well over 40 aces for the tournament, a number that seems anemic to her 100-plus aces at Wimbledon, but in that regard Serena is her own worst enemy. She’s crushing opponents so comprehensively that she doesn’t have a chance to beef up her ace total (at Wimbledon, for example, Serena was involved in three very tense and long three-setters).

It’s funny, but it was just a few months ago that I heard John McEnroe say that Serena probably has the best serve in the history of women’s tennis (the first time I heard her so anointed), and now the commentators can’t stop repeating and elaborating on that assertion.  The encomium seems accurate, but tonight many of the other things that Serena does well played a significant role in the outcome, and let’s face it—the quality of her serve and the results it produces easily render any discussion of those “other things” seemingly irrelevant.

Well, ponder this—tonight, the average speed of Ivanovic’s second serve was faster than that of Serena’s by one M.P.H. (91 to 90. Okay, so second serve is more about location and spin than speed; but also, the average speed of Serena’s first serve was only four M.P.H. better than Ana’s (108 to 104). Serena’s huge lead in winners (26 to nine) was a testament to her bold play and power, but the standout statistic is that Serena made only one more unforced error than Ivanovic (14 to 13).

Tonight, it was hard to ignore how well Serena moved, and how quickly and sharply she responded to the occasional threat from Ivanovic. The outstanding example of that was in the eighth game of the second set, with Serena up a break and serving for 5-3. Given how well Serena had been playing (she won 23 games in a row—spanning three matches—up to the point where Ivanovic held for 1-3 in the first set), this was something like a situation of concern, if nowhere near a crisis.

At 40-30 in that game, Serena double-faulted to drop back to deuce. She followed with a forehand winner, but then Ivanovic returned it to deuce with a sweet backhand reply to Serena’s down-the-line backhand missile. Serena jumped ahead again with a service winner, but made a forehand error to reset to deuce. Then she finished Ivanovic off with two service winners.

In that game, as in a number of others throughout the match, Serena was sometimes put on the defensive, often by virtue of Ivanovic’s counter-punching talents. But Serena scrambled impressively, often yanking back cross-court forehands from far off the court. Serena’s movement was commendable, and in combination with her raw power and the advantage provided by her serve, it constituted a formidable mystery—one that the other three women left in the draw will be hard pressed to solve.