A week of intoxicating tennis, scorching sun and enough shocks to fill the WTA calendar draws to a close in Ohio with the final of the Western and Southern Open between the omnipotent Serena Williams and the omnipresent Ana Ivanovic. As both players look to grab the upper hand a tantalising week before the world converges on the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, the Ohio crowd is sure to be in for a treat.
The American swing always promises to deliver the best tennis of the year, with both the ATP and WTA flirting with one another across the continent, and the Western and Southern Open has certainly delivered. From the off, there have been thrills and spills, from the Australian Open finalist of 2014 Dominika Cibulkova falling to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets in the very first round, to the Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, falling early for the second week in a row, the WTA rankings ladder was seemingly turned on its head. But, as we near the final hours, two ever-present heroines of the era will face off once again for all of the glory.
Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams are worthy champions of any tournament and the two have played out many a classic contest in their day. Although Williams may dominate their head-to-head at a rather audacious 6 victories to the Serb’s solitary one– which came in this year’s Aussie Open– the tussles have often been decided by the smallest of margins; in fact, all three matches this year have gone all the way and both players have faced equally stern tests to reach the final.
It is undisputable that Serena Williams is the greatest player of the modern era, and arguably of all time, but she has not really been herself lately. In this year’s Grand Slams she has struggled, failing to make the quarterfinals at any; a rather damning statistic. With shock defeats to the aforementioned Serb, the unheralded Garbine Murguruza and the inconsistent Frenchwoman, Alize Cornet, the American has not eradiated the fear she once did.
Ana Ivanovic, meanwhile, has enjoyed a year of resurgence on tour. The former French Open champion has won three tournaments, reached the final of Stuttgart, where she lost to Maria Sharapova in three sets, and performed admirably against the top ten, beating Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic and Agelique Kerber in a consistent 2014. The changes in her background team appear to have paid dividends, with fellow Serbs Nemanja Kontic and Dejan Petrovic taking turns at coaching the twenty-six year old through a real blue patch.
‘My team is now Serbian and very young, I actually enjoy hanging out with. This is what I enjoy.’ The Serb told the New York Times of Kontic. ‘This is what a lot of people do not understand (the lonesome nature of sport)’. And with the suddenly improved results across the board, one can hardly disagree.
To reach her twenty first WTA final, the Serb has certainly had to call upon every ounce of her Serbian spirit as she battled past an intense line of some the WTA’s finest. Defeating the likes of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elina Svitolina, the Serb found her toughest test in the shape of a determined Maria Sharapova.
The Saturday night crowd was treated to an absolute feast of incredible tennis, with the two Eastern European ladies playing as aggressively as the other, indulging the onlookers’ hearty appetite. A match of fluctuating fortunes and mental battles, the Serb prevailed after saving two match points, defeating her own medical troubles and a Maria Sharapova determined for a final showdown with her nemesis.
Tired and mentally exhausted, the last person Ivanovic will want to face less than twenty four hours later is Serena Williams. Although she has not been her frightful best lately and has had to withstand her own background troubles to steady her ship, she always seems to have found a way to win.
Facing off against her best friend Caroline Wozniacki for the second time in as many weeks, the odds certainly turned on the American when the Dane sprinted into a 6-2 lead. But, throughout the week, Williams has been strong if not all-powerful. Battling to victory against a spirited Sam Stosur in the third round, before easing her way to the semifinals, Williams has slowly but surely shown that she is on the path back to her peak.
‘I got off to a slow start, but I was definitely in it.’ Her words almost summarising her week in Ohio, as she fought back to defeat a resurgent Wozniacki in three sets.
At times slow and lackadaisical, at others as powerful as she ever has been, Serena Williams has dominated the US Open series if not in strength but in her results. Having already been crowned as the Queen of the 2014 US Open series by making the final, to go one stage further would place the icing on the cake.
And while the edges appear a little less smooth, the colours are fading and the icing barely covers the gloss, one thing is for sure, if Serena Williams were to defeat Ana Ivanovic and claim her maiden Western and Southern Open title, victory would taste very sweet indeed.