Serena gives no room to Sharapova and coughing fits, wins the Australian Open 2015

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No illness could stop world No.1 Serena Williams in beating Maria Sharapova for the sixteenth straight time in their careers to win her 19th Grand Slam title and sixth at the Australian Open.

From the onset Serena established her dominance, breaking Sharapova in the first game and then extending the lead in the seventh game to 5-2, shortly after a brief rain interruption and a big coughing fit that scared her fans. And even though Sharapova put one break of Serena’s serve in her stats, in the eighth game, helped by Serena’s two double faults, Serena answered with a love hold and basically stormed through the first set 6-3. At that moment it confirmed how big of a favorite Serena was, since she was 16-0 in Grand Slam finals when winning the first set. Not a good stat for Sharapova, who was battling her 2-16 head-to-head record against Serena.

Serena opened the second set with three aces and a bomb forehand and even though the following game was a gutsy hold by Sharapova, Serena served another love hold and never gave the momentum to Sharapova, although it was a solid set by both ladies and Sharapova even fought off two championship points, one in the tenth game for 5-5 and one in the tiebreak. Serena’s serve was on throughout the match and nothing could stop her en route to her 6-3 7-6(5) win. Note that this is Serena’s 100th victory over a Top 5 player!

When it comes to the WTA fashion, in my opinion, Serena is the winner of the tournament as well, having the most talked about outfit that refreshed the tournament. However, Sharapova beat Serena in our Australian Open fashion poll! Not much of a consolation for Masha, but still. Serena vibrant outfit is the Nike Spring Slam Tunic and it is planned to go with the Nike Spring Slam Printed Shortie.

16 COMMENTS

  1. It was a good match and Maria fight till the end. She wanted to cry , I felt sorry for her. But I’m happy that my girl Serena won her 19th major. I think she will win Wimbledon and US open. I’m not a Pova fan but if she doesn’t win Roland Grande, I want Serena to win. It wouldn’t be right if Halep becomes no# 2and Pova no#3. I don’t think Petra will win Wimbledon

  2. Jade, I made a comment on Twitter about this — Maria was apparently on the verge of crying but she was classy, took great control of her emotions and delivered a lovely speech. Respect for that! Plus, she gave good resistance to Serena, although not enough to take control in the match.

  3. Props to Maria, but 18 aces was just too much for her. Serena’s serving motion is the best in the business..man or woman. With the same toss she can disguise where she will place it and this gives her many free points. Did ya notice that after Sharapova’s speech she went to stand clear on the other side next to the ANZ CEO to avoid standing next to Serena. They sure do not like each other. At least last year Cibulkova and Li were engaging in each other. And no one will ever be as engaging as Li Na during an acceptance speech!

  4. These two may not like each other but they do have respect and bring their fighting spirit to every matchup. A win win for women’s tennis!

  5. Maria always give nice speeches. She gave her best especially on the second set. Serena is very determined to win and she claimed her 6th AO trophy and 19th grand slam singles title. She’s an amazing champion and truly an inspiration to upcoming and rising WTA stars. I agree, Serena outdid Maria as well in the fashion department. Nike actually dominated the whole Australian Open because all Nike sponsored players made it further in the draw this year. Good job Nike and congratulations to both girls.

  6. Why are people saying they don’t like each other though. Sharapova is like this with everybody, plus today she was just too sad and too over it, i mean come on. The handshake at the net was better than the one with Bouchard

  7. As kim clijsters said (speeches of ) Maria is a very classy and serena is right from the bottom of heart. Seems like they put on a great show and i missed it 🙁 ( 1.because we all know who the winner was gonna be and thought i don’t have to wake up that early 😛 ) But what serena said during her speech is soo inspiring. It can be applied to both of them one beating all the odds and other fighting for her passion at the young age of 7 in a country where she neither knows their culture or their language. Both of them had so much pressure on them at a very young age and the reason they are here is because of their hard work. on side note there are many williams fans out there who enjoy to bash her on all sorts of social networking sites but don’t realize how tough it must be for maria to step on to the court even though she knows she is most probably gonna loose, and keep fighting the way she does under such high pressure . Hey!! but we all know diamonds are made under high pressure both of these champs are very valuable diamonds 😉 and coming to serena what can i say she is the best and i hope she reaches # 22 🙂

  8. Thank God, common sense, honesty, reality and truth have finally entered the heart and mind of one of this year’s AO commentators! Pam Shriver was right-on when she predicted Serena would win the championship and beat Sharapova once again. After Maria was taken out by Serena (yes, yet once again), Ms. Shriver gave the most accurate commentary on the match, of all the commentators. She stated facts, stats, singles and doubles wins, gold medals…the whole nine yards; she talked about everything that is and always will be true of Serena; she gave credit where credit is due and truthfully stated Maria just doesn’t compare. She went on to say Serena is the greatest female tennis player of all time, based upon all that she’s accomplished since she’s been in the game, starting with her very first major at the tender age of 17. And, let’s not forget that spectacular serve, which is the best and only gets better the more she plays. Even with an illness and being 33-years-old, this woman beat Sharapova and won the 2015 Australian Open title! This proves to me just want a dynamic champion she is. Even on Maria’s best days, she can’t beat Serena; if she could, she would have done it by now (did I mention it’s been 11 years since she last beat Serena? That speaks volumes!). And think of this…every major that Maria has won, she won because Serena either didn’t play or was eliminated by another player, not her (Maria). Because of that, she really owes a huge “thank-you” to Serena for those five titles. In my mind, I believe when Maria shockingly beat her at Wimbledon over a decade ago, Serena vowed Maria would never beat her again, and that my friends is now a reality. All of you naysayers and haters, you can now bow down to the queen of female tennis…Ms. Serena Jamika Williams. Oh, and that includes you, Ms. Chris Evert; you and your precious little blue-eyed, blond haired russian (not American, as you’d like her to be) Maria Sharapova. What kind of sense did it make for you to say all of the pressure is on Serena. What??!! Pure insanity, that statement! It would make sense that all the pressure was on the player who hasn’t beaten Serena in 11 consecutive years, who can only hope and pray she finally will one day. The only credit I can give Maria Sharapova is that she’s a great fighter. But there again, so is Serena; that’s about the only honest thing the two have in common.

    “Thanks, Pam Shriver for stepping it up and stating facts, not fiction. You know, as well as the entire world, that Maria Sharapova should never be compared to Serena Williams in any form or fashion when it comes to what she has accomplished and is still accomplishing in the tennis world. Serena has the whole package, and she doesn’t need to imitate someone else’s serve, come-ons, fist pumps and so on; she is the real deal and deserves all the credit due her. “Congratulations, Serena! Keep giving God the glory and never, ever give up. You’re going to surpass Steffi Graff’s 22 majors; it’s inevitable. I’m so proud of you, and it’s such a joy to watch you play tennis.” Lastly, on another note, please Lord, have mercy on Bobbi Christina Brown. Let her fully recover and live on victoriously, as her dear mother, Whitney, would want her to do. Comfort and strengthen her family, and bless the doctors and nurses who are caring for her; grant them Your guidance and wisdom. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen and amen.

  9. The Real Deal, I agree with everything you said 100 percent . The thing I don’t understand about Maria is when Serena loses early in slams, why she doesn’t step up and win. We all know Serena make sure to win1- 2 slams a year. Maria need to step up and take hers when Serena faulted.

  10. Forehand 11, I agree with you, Sharapova was very focused on controlling her emotions during the speech and she accepted the defeat with grace.

    The Real Deal, Serena is definitely a class of her own, one of the best tennis players in history, a true living legend. Maria is also one of the best players ever, but her success is not yet legendary. Numbers speak for themselves here: Serena has more Australian Open singles titles than Maria has a total of Grand Slam titles.

  11. I wouldn’t talk about Serena being sick because many times there is something “wrong” with Serena, Crumps, ilnesses etc. Let’s talk about fighting and performance; not about excuses

  12. “Amen and amen” to you, Marija! Serena was definitely sick. Anybody with eyes in their head and who watched her playing the entire AO witnessed the evidence. It was recently revealed that she was also battling a fever, along with the cold and respiratory diagnosis. Her winning that championship was simply amazing and a total joy to watch! “Go, Serena! The GOAT without a doubt!”

  13. The Real Deal, I even read that she vomited during the break. Here’s what she said: “I ended up throwing up. I think that helped when I got everything out of me and cleared my chest out because I couldn’t breathe a little bit.”

  14. I watched the highligths of the final again. I never ever saw Serena serve like that. She may have fired 20 aces in other matches but the pace on her first serve was just insane especially in the 2nd set, she always hitted it over 190km/h and serve more than 200km/h in 4 occasions. Plus Sharapova couldn’t read the serve, she was just guessing because she knows Williams so well and watching some replay you can clearly see that Williams changed the direction of some services some ms after Sharapova decided to cover a specific side. We all know and assume that Serena has a good service but has she also improved it? Or the consistency of that serve from the semifinal was just the result of will and belief ?

  15. Forehand11, Serena has improved her serve, plus, she always steps up in important matches and crucial moments, always.

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