Several days ago, readers may recall that we predicted that someone named Williams would win the Women’s Singles title at the Australian Open. We made that prediction absolutely without fear, since at the time we ventured it, Venus and Serena Williams had advance to the final.
Serena had little trouble with big sister, beating Venus 6 – 4, 6 – 4 to notch her 23rd major and break the tie she shared for the all-time open era lead with Steffie Graf.
Those 23 major Grand Slam titles quite overshadow the 18 total that Roger Federer has amassed with his five set win over Rafael Nadal. The two men played a seesaw affair, with Nadal winning the second set and the fourth, with Federer capturing the first, third and fifth. The final Nadal/Federer tally way 4 – 6, 6 – 3, 1 – 6, 6 – 3, 3 – 6.
The game scores of the sets did not precisely capture the drama of the Men’s Singles final. At one juncture in the fifth set, when the match could have swung either way, Nadal and Federer played a point that featured a 26-shot rally, something that is rarely seen on hard courts with two players who save nothing when they hit a tennis ball.
The win extended Federer’s all-time record total, and put one more on his margin over Nadal, but Nadal does trail Federer by five years in age, so that issue is not conclusively decided.
