SERENA WILLIAMS WINS HER 20TH SLAM, THE FRENCH OPEN TENNIS HAD A REALLY EXCITING FINALS

Finally Twenty

By Cheryl Jones

 

The last time Lucie Safarova and Serena Williams faced each other on clay, it wasn’t red. It was green. As I’ve been told many times, green and red clay aren’t interchangeable as playing surfaces. They are as different as concrete and black top. The green Har-Tru is gritty and according to many competitors’ description, it’s somewhat like playing on gravel. No gravel was involved today; just finely ground red brick that is known as terre battue. It is the surface du jour in Europe. After cities were left with broken buildings due to war and neglect, someone had the bright idea to utilize the acres of broken bricks. It worked very well and Europe has terre battue courts in every municipality, large or small. The only one that counted today though was in the Sixteenth Arrondissement in Paris, on a little plot of land directly across from the Bois de Boulogne. It is called Roland Garros.

 

Williams took away the Suzanne Lenglen Coupe for the third time when Safarova hit the ball into the net and the score stood at 6-3, 6-7, 6-2. (Her other Paris victories were in 2002 and 2013.) With that, she now holds the record for the longest time between her first win and today’s victory. She is the oldest champion at the venue in the Open Era, at 33 years and 254 days. (Only Martina Navratilova was older when she won Wimbledon in 1990. She was 33 years 263 days then.)

 

Williams holds “being the oldest” records at this year’s Australian Open and the 2014 US Open, too. If she wins Wimbledon in a few weeks, it will be an “aged” record at each of the four grand slams. Another record she is unlikely to ever garner will be the most match wins at Roland Garros. She will have to play until she is at least thirty-nine and win all her matches from now until then to pass Steffi Graf who has a total of 84 of those matches notched on her tennis bag strap.

 

Williams’ win today was impressive. Her dominance in the game is stuff that legends are made of. It’s really too bad that her foul language accompanies her occasional frustration. She must not realize that each time she screams the f*** word, viewers can read lips. More than once she literally bellowed the word that finally drew a warning from the umpire. Television may have to use a fuzzy blue dot to cover her mouth in replays of the match.

 

Until today, Safarova had only won 3 sets out of the 19 the two women had previously contested. Safarova who is Czech will slide into the top ten of the rankings, making it three Czechs sitting at eight or better in the top ten. Williams will remain at number one for quite a while, because it would take her not playing at all and then someone very highly ranked winning two slams to even make a dent in her lead. Safarova will move up to 7 on that enviable list after today.

 

It’s been quite a year for Williams. She won the US Open prize last fall and then the Australian Open earlier this year. With the win today, it’s three in a row. Actually only four women have claimed the Australian Open and Roland Garros titles back-to-back. (The women include Margaret Smith Court in 1969, 1970, and 1973 [plus two before the Open Era in 1962 and 1964]; Steffi Graf in 1988; Monica Seles in 1991 and 1992; and Jennifer Capriati in 2001.) This is quite a feat, noting the disparity in surfaces from Australian hard courts to Roland Garros’ terre battue.

 

(As a footnote, Australia was contested on grass up until 1987. After that, the surface was changed to Rebound Ace, which is a layered surface that is supposed to offer a bit of a cushion. The trouble with Rebound Ace was that in high temperatures, it became sticky, causing problems for players when the heat of the day literally turned it into goo that grabbed soles of shoes, forcing players to either stop suddenly or wrench knees and/or ankles trying to free themselves to go for shots. It was changed after 2008 to utilize a similar but less sticky surface called Plexicushion, which is still in use today.)

 

Williams and Safarova were on the court for a tick over two hours. The first set was thirty-one minutes long and it looked as if it was going to be another day of Williams grinding away at her opponent and quickly vanquishing them to the runner-up column in the record books. The Czech woman had other ideas, though. In a set that would go on for nearly an hour with bursts of bleeped words from Williams at each point won by Safarova, it was 7-6 for Safarova when it ended. To get there, Safarova made it five – four and when Williams made it 6-5, Safarova skillfully won two more games and turned it around and took the set.

 

After Safarova won the first two games of the third set, it seemed like Williams put it into overdrive and clinched the match and the women’s top prize money of 1.8 million Euros by winning the last six games. She threw up her arms and seemed to be thanking Jehovah as she often does after matches. (This always surprises me, as her salty language is reminiscent of a sailor’s cursing. Perhaps she has a private dispensation to cover these situations. Who knows?)

 

It didn’t surprise me to see the level of Williams’ play. She had several blistering serves that surpassed 120 miles per hour. She is a competitor’s competitor. She managed eleven aces to Safarova’s two. She did however, have nine double faults and only got her first serve in play 55 percent of the time, with Safarova making 72 percent of her first serves. Just in case anyone thinks that unforced errors make the game, Williams could show them how that is wrong. Today, it was 42 for her and 17 for Safarova. However the forced error tally showed Williams with 23 and Safarova with 46. But, at the end of the two hour and one minute match, she made it her 20th major title and along with that, she passed Maria Sharapova in clay court titles among active players. (Steffi Graf has 22 of those major titles and if Williams manages a Slam this year – winning all the majors in a calendar year – she will tie Graf.)

 

Posing with the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen after the match, Williams was in her element. She loves the limelight. She has outshone the best of the best here in Paris. According to her father, Richard Williams, that was his intention when he and Oracene Price married and produced Venus and Serena. (Richard and Oracene divorced in 2002 and Richard married his present wife, Lakeisha in 2010. They have a son, Dylan Starr Williams who was born in 2012.) No one has seen the little guy with a tennis racquet, but watch out in about fifteen years. It may be time for a male Williams to dominate the sport.

 

Today was Serena’s day. She must be preparing to swat that yellow fuzzy ball across the lawns of Wimbledon to end up with the Venus Rosewater Cup for the sixth time. With her it’s a possibility that no one will count out until Wimbledon begins in three weeks.

Topics: 20th Slam, Cheryl Jones, Clay tennis, French Open Tennis, Lucie Safarova, Roland Garros 2015, Serena Williams, Wta

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