Serena Williams not only won the Australian Open this morning (our time), she completely dominated the tournament, winning not only the women's singles championship, but also the women's doubles, along with her sister, Venus.
In singles, Serena simply blew Dinara Safina, off the court, beating her 6-0, 6-3 in less than an hour. Most of the games weren't even close, with Dinara failing to score points in games regardless of whether she was serving or receiving.
But what I find completely remarkable is that Serena did this just one day after she and sister Venus stomped their competitors in women's doubles, beating Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-3. While I haven't heard much about Serena's fitness or training, she must be in just incredible shape to pull this off in the heat down under.
This was the 8th Grand Slam doubles title for the sisters. And if you think they play tennis so well that they don't even need to talk to each other during a match, think again. Here's an interesting excerpt from a piece on the Australian Open website, commenting on their doubles play:
While the sisters produced flawless tennis today, they admitted their doubles game needed a bit of help in the early days.
“I think when we first started playing, we thought we knew each other so well we didn't have to talk between points … Someone told us, maybe Zina (Garrison), that we needed to talk between points,” Venus smiled.
“We never told each other where we were going to serve or anything,” Serena adds.
“We just figured we're so close that we don't need to do that. I think that's pretty clueless,” Venus laughed.
So if the Williams sisters are talking to each other during their doubles matches, you can bet I'm talking to my partner during mine.
Now I just need to get myself up at 2:30 a.m. to catch Federer and Nadal playing for the men's title in what is sure to be a fabulous end to the Australian Open.