By Clair Maciel - Usopen.org --
At the beginning of the 2014 season, Serena Williams was poised for continued success at the majors, having won two Grand Slam titles and the year-end WTA Tour Championships the previous season. It seemed nothing could stand in her way of extending her legacy. But as the year wore on, Williams came up empty-handed in 2014’s first three majors. The US Open was her last shot at major glory.
Luckily for her, six months of hard work had finally started to pay off by summer, as she won two lead-up events in Stanford and Cincinnati. By Day 14 of the US Open, she was back in a major final for the first time in 12 months and in peak form against No. 10 seed Caroline Wozniacki.
An hour and 15 minutes in, Williams had reached her comfort zone, holding championship point. Seconds later, with a collapse to the court and a tearful celebration, her brief Grand Slam title drought ended, as the top-seeded Williams successfully defended her US Open title with a 6-3, 6-3 win, adding an 18th Grand Slam title to her storied career.
“It was such a wonderful feeling,” Williams said after the win. “It is a pleasure for me to win my first Grand Slam at the US Open and now win No. 18 here. It’s so emotional for me. I couldn’t ask to do it in a better place.”
When the 2014 US Open began, critics had begun to wonder if the season would end with a Slam-less Williams. The American made early exits in the fourth round of the Australian Open, the second round of Roland Garros and the third round of Wimbledon. It had gotten to the point where even Williams herself had begun to have doubts about her fate.
“In the beginning of the week, I definitely wasn't sure I would make it this long,” she said upon securing a spot in the final. “Definitely wasn't sure I'd be here. So I'm just elated, to be honest, to have made it this far.”
Thanks to a favorable draw at the US Open, Williams’ road to the title was wide open. Not once did she have to face a Top 10 seed until the championship match, and of the players in her half of the draw who could potentially test her, such as Victoria Azarenka, Genie Bouchard or Petra Kvitova, all were knocked out early, thanks to unexpected upsets.
As the tournament progressed, not a single opponent could touch Williams, and she tore through the draw in near flawless form, without conceding a set. She concluded the tournament in the same fashion. In fact, no opponent was able to take more than three games in a set off of her the entire event. She points to a recent boost in confidence this summer after a disappointing start to the year as the driving force behind her victory.
“I think playing all those matches this summer helped get my confidence up,” she said. “I needed those matches to help keep me calm, and I felt calm all tournament.”
With the win, Williams can now pen her name into a couple of different categories in the history books. For starters, her three-peat is the first to happen at the US Open since Chris Evert won four straight from 1975-78. And she’s the first to achieve the feat at any Grand Slam since Justine Henin won three Roland Garros titles from 2005-07.
Williams’ sixth US Open ties her with Evert’s six titles, while her 18th major singles crown puts her on par with Evert and Martina Navratilova, all tied for second on the all-time list behind Steffi Graf’s 22. While she already has No. 19 on her mind, Williams said she is still overwhelmed with the moment of finally winning a major in 2014.
“I definitely did not think I was going to win a Slam this year,” she said. “It's a little bit of a relief. I have been trying to reach it for so long, since the beginning of the year. I didn't really think would I get there. It was eluding me for three tournaments, I guess. But, still that's a lot for me. I was really excited to get it.”
At 32, Williams was every bit the dominating force in Sunday’s final showdown at the US Open, playing with just as much – if not more – power and gusto as she did when she won her first Grand Slam title here 15 years ago as a rising 17-year-old star. And it begs the question: Just how long can Williams continue adding Slams to her résumé? Based on Sunday’s performance, that could be a question we find ourselves asking for the next few years to come.
