serena williams defeated world #1 victoria azarenka of belarus, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 to win her fourth u.s. open women's singles crown. the 30 year-old african-american now has 15 major singles titles. as williams thoroughly dominated the first set, cbs commentator & international hall of famer john mcenroe called her the greatest female women's tennis player in history.
but williams had to withstand a furious comeback by her opponent, the 2012 australian open champion. the 23 year-old azarenka began the year with a 26-match win streak. she is dominant on hard courts - her favorite surface - & felt confident going into the final, despite her 1-9 record against williams, who first won the u.s. open as a 17 year-old teenager in 1999.
azarenka's competitive spirit & punishing ground strokes gave her an edge. in the past she would fold under duress but her mental toughness is now an asset. after winning the second set 6-2, she broke williams twice & led 5-3 in the final set. down match point on azarenka's serve in game eight, williams broke back & continued to fight like a champion. when azarenka's backhand sailed out, she hit the ground in amazement, smiling at her latest accomplishment.
andy murray of britain defeated world #1 novak djokovic of serbia, 7-6 (12-10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 to win his first major singles title. murray sunk to his knees after the last point, letting tears of joy freely as he became the first brit since fred perry in 1936 to emerge victorious in a major men's singles championship. previously, murray was 0-4 in major final matches.
the hard-fought & highly contested match lasted four hours & 54 minutes, tying a record for the longest u.s. open men's singles final, set in 1988, when mats wilander defeated ivan lendl. ironically, lendl serves as murray's new coach. the first set was nearly 90 minutes. but the tiebreaker lasted almost 25 minutes, setting a record for the longest tiebreaker in u.s. open men's singles finals history.
both players gave a tremendous effort with brilliant shot making from all parts of the court. their back court rallies were long & punishing - one lasted 54 shots in total. murray was up 4-0 in the second set & seemed destined for a straight set victory. undaunted by murray's fine play, djokovic, the defending champion, roared back to tie the match at two sets all. but murray's perseverance was too much for djokovic. he held serve in game eight, to finally win a major singles title.
i am
- mark j. tuggle
- harlem, usa
- same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.
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