Serena Williams looked up at the rafters after beating her older sister Venus to win the Billie Jean King Cup. Following a short trip to her courtside chair, she walked to the center of the court, held her racquet up and waved to the crowd. Yes, the world’s No. 1 player enjoyed her first tennis tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Serena wore down Venus in a 6-4, 6-3 victory Monday night, wowing the fans with her impressive power as women’s tennis returned to the Garden after a nine-year absence.
“Definitely winning in Madison Square Garden, also with Billie Jean and this Cup is just really fun and it being the first time is really cool,” said Serena Williams, who took home $400,000 of the $1.2 million purse. I’m really excited about that opportunity. Hopefully it will continue to open more doors for women’s sports and women’s tennis.
The Williams sisters gave the crowd of 12,026 exactly what it wanted by advancing to the championship, but Venus was never the same after she was broken in a marathon game in the first set.
“The crowd was really nice, definitely,” said Venus Williams, who won the Mexican Open on Saturday night for her second WTA Tour title in two weeks. “I thought they were rooting for me to get back in and take it to the third, which I couldn’t quite do.”
The Garden hosted the WTA season-ending championships every year but one from 1977-2000, but the marquee event hasn’t been back since. After Roger Federer beat Pete Sampras in a riveting three-setter at MSG last year, four of the top seven women’s players in the world agreed to stage their own exhibition at “the world’s most famous arena.”
Serena Williams shook off an early challenge from seventh-ranked Ana Ivanovic and won 6-3 in the second semifinal after Venus advanced with a 6-4 victory over Jelena Jankovic in the one-night exhibition.
Before the final, former President Bill Clinton, figure skaters Sarah Hughes and Nancy Kerrigan and race car driver Janet Guthrie participated in a tribute to Billie Jean King, who founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973.
“She has probably done more than any other woman in the world to empower women and educate men,” Clinton said.
-- The Associated Press
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