Williams says memory of sister inspired Aussie win
The American, ranked 81st going into the tournament, dispatched the new world number one 6-1 6-2 in just over an hour and said her focus was unflinching in the final.
“Right from play I was driven. I’ve been watching some matches and I was just feeling really good about going out there,’’ Williams said.
“And you know, at the end of the day I’ve done well.”
Williams, the first unseeded player to win the Australian Open title in 29 years, said she was desperate to secure victory to honour her sister Yetunde Price, who was shot dead in Compton in September 2003.
“Every day I write notes for my match. My note (for the final) was just ‘Yetunde’. That was all my notes. That’s it,” she said.
“Usually I write ‘Look at the ball, move forward, do this, do that’. I just had one word. Every changeover I looked at it and I just thought about how happy she would have been, how much she always supported me.
“I just thought about what an amazing sister she was to me. I just said ‘Serena, this has to be motivating. This has to be more than enough to motivate me’ and I think it was.”
This was not how Maria Sharapova wanted to celebrate her elevation to No. 1 in the rankings: sitting on a plane to Tokyo after being on the receiving end of one of the most lopsided results in a Grand Slam final.
The Sharapova that looked so dominant while winning last year’s US Open in straight sets over Justine Henin-Hardenne simply had no answers Saturday.
“I was trying to find a way to get in the rallies, trying somehow to find a way to get an opening, through a door,” Sharapova said.
“I wasn’t getting frustrated or anything,” she added. “I was just trying to tell myself, you can always find a way even if you’re down a set and two breaks.”
Sharapova, who will displace Henin-Hardenne officially as No. 1 today, couldn’t find a way to prevent Williams from winning her eighth singles major. Sharapova is six Grand Slams behind, having beaten Williams in the final at Wimbledon in 2004 and winning last year’s US Open title.
“Two completely different stages of my career,” Sharapova said when asked to compare her win over Williams at the All-England Club more than two years ago and Saturday’s loss at Rod Laver Arena.
“At Wimbledon, I was going into every single match thinking that I should have been home already. As years have gone on, I feel like I expect myself to be winning.”
Sharapova, who turns 20 in April, started this year in Hong Kong, where she lost in the final of an exhibition tournament to Kim Clijsters. She beat Clijsters in the semi-finals here.
She’ll move from the hardcourts at Melbourne Park to the indoor carpet at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where the other entrants this week include Martina Hingis and Serbian teenager Jelena Jankovic.
There, Sharapova will heed the advice of her mother, Yelena.
“Unfortunately it was my mom’s birthday and I couldn’t win for her,” Sharapova said. “She always tells me, ‘Look, you got a tournament next week. You got to focus on that. You’re going to look back on this and say this really taught me something, this only made me stronger.’”
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