MELBOURNE, Australia – Serena Williams always selects a special outfit to bring to Australia for a victory celebration. Every second year, she gets to wear it.
Williams’ 6-0, 6-3 rout of Dinara Safina yesterday earned her a 10th Grand Slam title, a fourth Australian title – coming each odd-numbered year since 2003 – and the No. 1-ranking.
“I actually forgot until the end when I was saying hi to my box. They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re No. 1.’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah,’ ” she said.
Not that a number means everything.
“I always believe I’m the best, whether I’m No. 1 or 100,” she said. “Just having that extra bonus is pretty cool.”
Williams set aside a stylish black top to wear for the big occasion this time. In between the match, doping tests and media commitments, she changed into it.
“I always bring an outfit for the championships,” she said. “I always try to think positive, and I think it helps me be able to win.”
Williams was so dominant that Safina, a 22-year-old Russian playing in her second major final, didn’t feel worthy of being on the same court.
“It was first time for me to play not only for the Grand Slam, but also for No. 1 spot,” said Safina, the 2008 French Open runner-up. “I never been through this situation, and she was already.
“Serena was too good. . . . I was just a ballboy on the court today,” added Safina, apologizing to the Rod Laver Arena crowd after the 59-minute match.
After Melbourne’s hottest three-day heat wave on record, conditions were a relatively mild 79 degrees for the tournament’s first women’s final at night.
Safina had been hoping to emulate two feats her brother, Marat Safin, achieved. He won the 2005 Australian Open – the day after Serena won her second title here – and held the No. 1 ranking.
“She played exactly the way she had to play and she was much more aggressive,” Safina said.
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Williams took less than one- fifth of the time to beat Safina than top-ranked Rafael Nadal needed to fend off fellow Span ish left-hander Fernando Ver dasco to reach the men’s final.
Nadal won 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (1), 6-4 in 5 hours, 14 min utes Friday, the longest match in the tournament’s history, to reach to day’s final against Roger Federer.
Federer, seeking to equal Pete Sampras’ record 14 Grand Slam singles titles, beat American Andy Roddick in straight sets on Thursday.
Today, they met for the seventh time to decide a Grand Slam. Nadal, the four-time French Open champion, went into the match with a 4-2 edge highlighted by last year’s epic five-set win at Wimbledon. He also ended Federer’s 237-week stretch at No. 1 last August.
“This is where I won the Grand Slam to become No. 1 in the world, back in 2004,” Federer said. “The stage is set for a great match. I hope we can live up to them.
“Hopefully, (I’ll) equal Pete’s record.”
