Serena Williams gave another tennis clinic to one of her toughest rivals -if you want to call it that way- Maria Sharapova in a 63 minute dismantling 6-0/6-1 victory, winning the Gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics and becoming only the second woman in achieving a career Golden Slam, meaning she has won the big four majors plus now a Gold medal in the olympics. The only other female tennis player to achieve so, Steffi Graff.
While not entirely flawless or perfect, one could say Serena's performance was very close to be regarded as both flawless and perfect. We can analyze it by comparing another pounding Serena gave to Maria when back in 2007 she ran over her 6-1 / 6-2 her at the Australian Open finals, being unseeded and Maria ranked at the #1 spot. Yesterday in London:
- Her first serve was impecabble at 67% including 10 aces, quite close to 07s 67% with 7 aces. She hit two double faults on both matches.
- Serena hit 24 winners and had 7 unforced errors. In 07 she had 28 and 11.
- She converted 5 out of 7 break points and faced only 2 break points which she saved. In 07 She had 4 of 6 and also saved the only 2 break points Maria had.
- Maria on the other hand, had only 6 winners (none came from her forehand) and 10 unforced errors. She only had one ace and double faulted 5 times on a 62% of first serve. Overall, a worse performance than the 07 match when she had 3 aces, 6 double faults, but at least coined 12 winners against 13 unforced errors.
So basically, it all comes to Maria playing as good as she could and Serena playing in Godess mode, or what I like to call... REACH MODE ON.
Reach Mode On is the state in which Serena plays and is able to defeat any woman who can hold a racket, alive, dead, left handed, right handed, anything. Serena is no doubt the most interesting female player of all time, as her constant up and down swings, frequent injuries and withdrawls of tournaments, has made everybody wonder what could she be able to do if her focus could be at 100% each time she'd need it, like for instace the 2011 US Open Final when she was out of herself and lost unexpectedly and surprisingly.
I remember reading one time an interview a few years ago, and Serena was asked to point the one match in her career she felt she had played her best and at her absolute peak of her powers. The answer took the interviewer by surprise, as I'm quite sure it took a lot of people as well: "I haven't played such match yet" she replied.
In an era when the female tennis cirquit is so open, it's very rewarding to see Serena as a commanding authority to rise her game and show that there is a gap between her and the rest... and that the gap is way bigger than what everyone thinks. It makes me wonder what do all those tennis players who have beaten Serena before think about telling their children one day:
-"Mommy, did you ever beat Serena Williams when you played against her?"
-"Oh no my darling. I did played Serena Williams yes, and the scored showed me as a winner, but what really happened is that she let me win."
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