Third successes for Federer and Williams
Roger Federer and Serena Williams completed a trio of Australian
Open wins as the season’s opening major concluded in
Melbourne over the weekend.
 Federer
became the first man since Bjorn Borg at 1980 Roland Garros
to win a Grand Slam title without dropping a set, as he overcame
some stubborn early resistance from Fernando Gonzalez to collect
his tenth Grand Slam title with a 76(2) 64 64 victory in Sunday’s
final. Gonzalez, who was bidding to become the first Chilean
male Grand Slam champion, had defeated No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal
in the quarterfinals en route to his first Grand Slam final,
but came up short against the World No. 1, who became the
ninth man to win three or more Australian titles.
“Equalling records, doing something that hasn’t
been done for a long time, it’s really nice,”
remarked Federer, who will break Jimmy Connors’s record
of 160 consecutive weeks as world No. 1 next month. “I’m
close to winning four in a row, that’s what’s
on my mind now. The French Open is obviously the next big
thing on my mind. If I win the title, that will be a dream
come true and that’s the only way I can make this season
a better one than last year.” The 2007 men’s final
also made history in the officiating books, when Sandra De
Jenken of France, a member of the ITF Officiating team, became
the first woman to umpire a men’s Grand Slam Final.
 Williams
stormed her way to the title, ranked No. 81 coming into the
tournament, and having played just four tournaments in 2006.
The American defeated six seeded players on her way to the
title and after struggling through some of her earlier matches,
Williams hit top form in the final, dispatching Sharapova
61 62 in just over an hour.
“This one is right up there with the top”, said
Williams. “Even I didn’t expect to come in and
win it all. I never expected to lose either, you just always
stay positive. My plan was just to play my game, and that
was my game. I finally played it for the first time this whole
tournament.”
As a result of winning her eighth career Grand Slam singles
title, Williams will leap back into the world’s Top
15, while Sharapova has the consolation of returning to the
No. 1 spot in the women’s rankings today as a result
of reaching the final.
The first title of the 2007 Australian Open went to Cara
Black and Liezel Huber, who lifted the women’s doubles
title on Friday. The Zimbabwean-South African duo defeated
unheralded wild cards Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang from
Chinese Taipei 64 67 61 to collect their second successive
Grand Slam title.
The men’s doubles title went to Bob and Mike Bryan.
The twins defeated Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi 75 75 to
take their fifth Grand Slam title overall and break a three-match
losing streak against their opponents, who won the 2006 Tennis
Masters Cup title.
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