Serena Williams won her 19th Grand Slam title, continued her unbeaten run in six Australian Open finals and extended her decade-long domination of Maria Sharapova with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory despite a hacking cough on Saturday night. After celebrating prematurely on her third match point, letting her racket go before hearing a let call to what she thought was an ace, Williams had to quickly re-gather her composure.
“I thought, ‘Wow this is it, I did it, only to hear let. I was like, ‘OK Serena!’” she said. “I was very disappointed, because Maria was playing so well. I thought she's going to try to hit a winner now. She's goes for broke on match point.” Williams took a deep breath and fired another ace — her 15th of the set and 18th of the match — and this time the celebration was real.
She jumped around like a little child, bouncing up and down, before shaking hands with Sharapova. “I'm so honored to be here tonight and to hold this 19th trophy at my favorite stadium,” Williams said. The 33-year-old Williams became the oldest winner of the Australian women's title in the Open era and moved into outright second place on the list of major winners in the Open era, behind only Steffi Graf's 22.
Still affected by a recent cold, Williams controlled the first set around a rain delay in the sixth game, when play was stopped for the roof to be closed.Williams came back on court momentarily, but then returned to the locker room. “I had a really bad cough, I ended up throwing up, actually. I think that helped me when I got it out,” Williams said. “I've just got a really bad cold, a really bad cough. Usually when that happens you stay in bed, you don't play matches every day.”
She came back from the break and fired an ace to start a run of six straight points. She was broken while serving for the set but broke Sharapova back immediately. Williams won the first six points of the second set, too, and seemed on course for another lopsided victory before Sharapova started hitting out. The five-time major winner had 18 of her 21 winners in the second set, cutting down her unforced errors and fending off four break points.
No. 2-ranked Sharapova saved two match points, including one in the 10th game when she bravely hit a forehand winner down the line — applauded by Williams — and she calmly held serve twice to stay in it. Sharapova forced a tiebreaker but Williams rallied again and relied on her serve to keep the points short, missing a second match point when Sharapova hit a winning service return. Williams didn't relent, though, and secured the title.
She was aggressive from the start, screaming “C'mon” after big points. But she had to tone it down after going too far in the seventh game of second set when the chair umpire ruled a hindrance when she celebrated too early on an ace and was docked a point. Williams is 17-2 in career matches against Sharapova, who hasn't won a meeting since 2004.