US Open: Serena Williams’ last hurrah at home grand slam headlines fascinating two weeks of tennis
Serena Williams looks down at her final round in the U.S. Open final against Victoria Azarenka. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.
Serena Williams did not have the perfect week for a Grand Slam champion. The first came in the U.S. Open final, where she was defeated by Victoria Azarenka. A second came on Saturday, as Williams withdrew from the French Open due to a knee injury.
That left her to go through the first week at the most glamorous Slam of the year, yet more than one of the greatest tennis players of all time did not win it.
The U.S. Open did not have better days for players other than Williams and Rafael Nadal, who made it to his fifth career major final by beating David Ferrer and Robin Soderling. Williams, however, was not there to see it. She was recovering from surgery to repair a tear in her left calf.
There were more than 20 tennis players who had their time to shine on the main stage and Williams was one of them.
The last time Williams had a two-week run like this was at the Australian Open. She won Wimbledon twice, had four consecutive French Opens, and became the first woman in the Open Era with more than $1 billion in prize money.
The top-ranked player in the world was scheduled to play on the first-weekday clay court at the French Open, yet she had to pull out because of a knee injury.
The biggest shock is that the U.S. Open final was played on a hard court. This is not a very hard court, but the court was in the middle of the hard-court clay main stage, which made it a challenge for any player at anytime. That was not the case at the French Open, for which the court was in the middle of the main hard-court clay stage. It was not much of a surprise that Williams was not in the final, since she is not a good clay court player and also due to injury.
The last time anyone had to play a major final on a fast court was at Wimbledon in 2006, when Chris Tilden was forced to retire in the