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All Williams again ... barely Serena rallies to survive; Venus makes first Aussie finalPosted: Thursday January 23, 2003 12:47 AMUpdated: Thursday January 23, 2003 9:37 AM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- A Williams slam is guaranteed. Serena Williams moved within one win of her "Serena Slam" when she advanced to a fourth consecutive Grand Slam championship match against older sister Venus. Even if Serena doesn't win the Australian Open, the Williams will hold all four majors. Top-ranked Serena almost didn't make it. Hobbling with blisters on her right foot, she saved two match points against Kim Clijsters to move into the final at Melbourne Park. Andre Agassi breezed into his fourth Australian Open final on a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 demolition of veteran South African Wayne Ferreira that improved his record to 38-3 at Melbourne Park. Agassi, winner here in 1995, 2001 and 2001, broke twice in each set and clinch the match in 1 hour, 28 minutes with a forehand winner at the net. The 32-year-old American, now 11-0 against Ferreira including 10 straight-sets wins, will meet the winner of Friday's semifinal between Andy Roddick and Rainer Schuettler in the final on Sunday. Ninth-seeded Roddick outlasted Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui 21-19 in the longest fifth set in Grand Slam tennis on Wednesday night. It lasted 2 hours, 23 minutes and the match ended in a minute shy of five hours. Serena Williams, who beat Venus in last year's French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals, saved two match points and rallied from two breaks down in the third set Thursday before reeling off six consecutive games to beat Clijsters 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in her semifinal. She looked less comfortable at Melbourne Park than Venus, who overwhelmed another Belgian, Justine Henin-Hardenne, 6-3, 6-3. "Venus is actually playing a little better than me at this tournament," Serena said. "I've just got to pull something out of my back pocket to be able to go onto the next level." Their winning celebrations were similar Thursday but had a different tempo. Venus flashed a jubilant smile and did a quicker-version of her victory pirouette before she ran to the bleachers to link hands with her mom, Oracene. "It's so exciting. You know, I've struggled and failed, done everything but get this close to winning the Australian Open," said Venus. Of another final showdown, she added: "Four in a row is real nice. ... At least, I'm in a position to be a winner." Serena dropped her racket as Clijsters' backhand missed on match point and shuffled over to her mother and Venus mouthing, "I can't believe it. I can't believe it." "I'm a fighter," said Serena, who won despite her amazing 65 errors. "I didn't come all these miles to lose." It's the first time in the final at Melbourne Park for each of the Williams girls. Serena withdrew last year after injuring her ankle in a warmup tournament and Venus was ousted in the quarterfinals. Serena is aiming to be the first woman to hold all four major titles at once since Steffi Graf nine years ago. Graf also had a close call, at the 1993 Wimbledon final. Jana Navotna led Graf 4-1 and 40-30 in the third before she double faulted herself out of the match. The Williams sisters later combined ombined to reach the women's doubles final, beating Lindsay Davenport and Lisa Raymond 6-2, 6-2. Between now and Saturday's singles final, talk in the Williams camp won't center on tennis. "I don't like to bring my work home," Serena said. Trailing 1-5 in the final set against Clijsters, Serena held serve and then saved two match points -- one with a swinging volley winner to end a long point. "I really didn't think I'd win it at that stage ... I just kept fighting, one point at a time. Next thing I knew, the match was over." Williams held again to make it 4-5. Clijsters then served five consecutive faults to go down 0-30 and Williams eventually broke again to get back on even terms. The most dominant woman in tennis got back in control again, winning her next serve and breaking Clijsters to clinch her 27th consecutive Grand Slam match. "That's probably is the only thing I regret a little bit, those two double faults," Clijsters said. Her composure in the last six games contrasted her first-set condition, when she had 22 unforced errors and double faulted twice on the last two points to lose it. Her forehand was faultering and Clijsters needed two points for a 3-0 lead in the third before Serena snapped at herself after 48th unforced error, screaming: "Serena Stop it." She held and trailed 2-1 before she asked for courtside treatment for her blisters. Clijsters swooped on the advantage, racing to a 5-1 lead before she crumbled. "She just started playing so much more aggressively and hardly made any unforced errors any more," said Clijsters, who won 24 of her 25 previous matches. She "took such a big risk to really go for her shots." No woman has held all four majors at once since Graf added the 1994 Australian title to her victories in the other majors in 1993. Graf also is one of only three women with a true Grand Slam -- all four majors in one calendar year. She did that in 1988, following Maureen Connolly in 1953 and Margaret Court in 1970. Against Venus, Henin-Hardenne was still recovering from her three-set fourth-round match against former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport. She'd collapsed with cramping legs and needed a medical timeout two games before she came back to beat Davenport. Venus Williams was a more difficult proposition. "Venus played much more aggressively than me," she said. "She returned well, she served beautifully and came more often to the net." "I couldn't come out here and play immature," said Venus, who improved her record to 7-1 against the 2001 Wimbledon runnerup. "I had to play my best." Ferreira, 32, hadn't been in a Grand Slam semifinal since the Australian in 1992. He was hustled out of the match by Agassi, who hit 32 winners and won 85 percent of points on his first serve. The South African had only five winners on his forehand, his biggest weapon in an upset quarterfinal win over No. 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero. Roddick, 20, has spent 13 hours, 55 on court here, including back-to-back five-setters. Schuettler, who got a walkover into the fourth round when No. 3 Marat Safin pulled out with a wrist problem, has spent 7:53 on court at Melbourne.
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