Serena Williams solidified her World No. 1 ranking by winning the Sony Ericsson Championships on Sunday, November 1, 2009 in Doha, Qatar. She claimed the championship with a straight-sets win over her sister, Venus Williams, and a 5-0 record for the tournament. Venus was back to defend her title from last year, but Serena made sure that did not happen.
The Final was competitive between the two sisters. However, both were struggling with injuries and had heavy taping on their left legs. Serena was dominate in the opening set, winning 6-2. Venus then stepped up her game in the second set, managing to force a tiebreak. However, Serena came out on top, winning the match 6-2, 7-6(4).
After the match, Serena withdraw from next weekend’s Fed Cup final against Italy, saying, “We definitely weren’t physically 100 percent out there today. Right now, I’m just struggling in every aspect of my body.” The USTA has announced that Serena will be replaced by Vania King for the Fed Cup Final.
Venus had lost her two opening round robin matches, one against Elena Dementieva, the other against sister, Serena, before winning her final round robin match against Svetlana Kuznetsova. However, two others in her Maroon Group of four also lost two matches. When total sets won were tallied up, Venus had more than the other two with 1-2 records. So in spite of a 1-2 record, Venus still made it into the Semifinals, where she defeated Jelena Jankovic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to set up the Final against Serena. In her Semifinal match, Serena had defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 0-1 (retired).
Serena and Venus have met 12 times in a tournament Final for a singles title. Overall they have played each other 23 times over the years. Serena leads their head-to-head record 13-10. It was Serena’s fourth straight win over her sister.
Players results were:
- Maroon Group
- Serena Williams went 5-0, wining the Final.
- Venus Williams ended up 2-3, losing in the Final.
- Svetlana Kuznetsova posted a 1-2 record.
- Elena Dementieva went 1-2.
- Agnieszka Radwanska ended up playing one match as an alternate going 1-0.
- White Group
- Caroline Wozniacki ended up 1-3, losing in the Semifinals.
- Jelena Jankovic went 2-2, losing in the Semifinals.
- Victoria Azarenka posted a record of 1-2,
- Dinara Safina went 0-1, retiring during her first match.
- Vera Zvonareva went 0-1 as an alternate.
It was a tournament of firsts and quirks:
- It was the first time Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka appeared in the Sony Ericsson Championships.
- Dinara Safina, the reigning World No. 1, retired from her opening round robin match after only 13 minutes of play because of a back injury, assuring Serena Williams of ending the season ranked No. 1. Safina had injured her back three months ago, and claims she did everything possible to play in this tournament. She received cortisone injections to try to mask the pain, but tied 1-1 against Jelena Jankovic, Safina said, “I could not handle anymore this pain.” Safina is now in doubt for the Australian Open in January.
- It was Serena’s first non-Grand Slam tournament championship in 18 months.
- It was perhaps the most “taped” final. Venus played with her left knee strapped, while Serena had strapping on her left thigh.
- In winning the $1.55 million prize, Serena had a record $6.19 million in prize money for the year. Justine Henin had the previous record of $5.43 million in 2007. These are the only two in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history to earn more than $5 million in a single year.
- It was perhaps a record number of retirements.
- Safina after just 13 minutes in her first match due to pain from a previous back injury.
- Victoria Azarenka in her third round match because of cramping.
- Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals due to abdominal strain. She had suffered through extreme cramping and hamstring strain in her previous match.
- Out of the ten women who played this week, only Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova ended the tournament in condition to play another tournament, if one were scheduled. And this is with the WTA shortening the calendar for 2009.
The Sony Ericsson Championships will return to the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in Doha for the third straight year in 2010, from October 26 to October 31. The event will then move to Istanbul, Turkey, from 2011 to 2013.
