Tennis: Serena fights way to fifth Australian title

Serena Williams initially looked nervous but went on to take control of last night's final. Photo / Getty Images

MELBOURNE - Serena Williams put an end to Justine Henin's hopes of a Grand Slam title on her return from retirement with a 6-4 3-6 6-2 win in the Australian Open final last night.

Defending champion Williams withstood a determined challenge from Henin before securing her fifth Australian Open title and 12th Grand Slam singles championship overall.

Williams' five Australian titles is the most by any woman in the Open Era, since 1968, surpassing the four each held by Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.

Henin, who had most of the crowd support at Rod Laver Arena, couldn't match her fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters' feat of winning in her Grand Slam comeback tournament. Clijsters won last year's US Open on her return from a two-year retirement in which she got married and had a baby.

"It was definitely a tough match mentally and physically," Williams said. "We were both out there to prove something, and I think we both did at the end of the day."

Williams won the last four games Saturday to clinch the final in just over two hours, falling on her back in celebration after match point before shaking hands with Henin at the net.

"It's good to have her back, it's exciting," Williams said of Henin. "She can definitely be No 1, especially with our ranking system, if she keeps doing well."

Still, it was an impressive run by Henin. She lost in the final of the Brisbane International tournament to Clijsters two weeks ago.

The unranked and unseeded Henin then beat four seeded players en route to the Australian Open final, including No 5 and Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva in the second round.

"It's been a very emotional two weeks for me," said Henin, who put her hand on her heart as she thanked the crowd for support. "I thought it would never happen to me again."

Later, Henin said there was a feeling of disappointment, but accomplishment.

"It's just more than what I could expect, I just have to remember that," Henin said. "Even if it's quite soon after the match now, I'm sure there will be a lot of positive things I can think about in a few days. It's been almost perfect. Just the last step, I couldn't make it."

And she's certain now about her decision to come back on the tour.

"I was curious about what my level would be and how I was going to deal with just the atmosphere on and off the court, how it would feel," Henin said.

"I felt I took the right decision, so it's good enough for me already. I got the results also in the last four weeks: two finals. So I can be really happy about that."

Henin saved two break points to hold for 3-3 in a four-game run in the second set, winning 13 of the last 14 points in a dominant finish to level at 1-set apiece. She maintained the superiority early in the deciding set, increasing that to 18 of 19 points before Williams held serve to level the third set at 1-1.

Williams, with her right thigh and left knee heavily taped as it had been for much of the tournament, staged her own resurgence, breaking Henin in the next game to go up 2-1. Henin broke Williams' serve in the next game, but the American broke back in the next to go up 3-2, a lead she never relinquished.

"I thought I was just giving it to her at that point," Williams said. "I didn't want to go out like that. I literally said to myself, `I need to man up and start playing better."'.

Williams held her serve in the next game with a second-service ace to go up 4-2, then broke again in the next game to take her within a game of the title.

Henin won the Australian Open title in 2004. She quit from the 2006 final with stomach problems while trailing Amelie Mauresmo 6-1, 2-0.

Williams' 12th singles major matched American great Billie Jean King's career total. King was at the stadium on Saturday night to take part in a pre-match ceremony to honour the 40-year anniversary of Court's four Grand Slam tournament wins in 1970.

"Billie, we are tied," Williams said. "So I've reached my goal."

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are Williams' next goal, with 18 majors each.

"Honestly, I'm just doing what I can. I obviously enjoy playing in Melbourne, clearly," Williams said. "I never thought I could catch up with Martina, because she's such an amazing champion."

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan won their fourth Australian Open men's doubles title, beating Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-3 in the final.

The brothers have now won the title here four of the past five years and were losing finalists the two previous years. They have eight Grand Slam men's doubles titles, including two at the US Open and one each at the French Open and Wimbledon.

The men's final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray is tonight, when fifth-seeded Murray will attempt to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a Grand Slam major.

The Australian Open is Murray's 17th Grand Slam tournament, which is how many attempts Federer needed before winning for the first time at Wimbledon seven years ago against Mark Philippoussis. At that tournament, Federer was seeded fourth and Philippoussis was unseeded.

Murray was beaten 6-2 7-5 6-2 in the US Open final in 2008.

Federer joked about the British drought after his semifinal win on Friday.

"I know he'd like to win the first for British tennis since, what is it 150,000 years?" Federer said.

Murray smiled Saturday when told of Federer's comment.

"I've only been alive for 22 and a little bit, but, yeah, it's been a long time. It's going to be tough."

- AP