match, Serena Williams served notice that she was ready to power herself to victory.  It was not Serena’s best serving day, but her serve, especially her first serve, proved dominant in the moments that mattered most.  Overall, Serena made only 64% of her first serves for the match, but she placed 71% of them in in the first set and won some crucial break points against her with strong serves.  In the decisive third set, Serena won 86% of the points on her first serve.  In contrast, Justine Henin made only 50% of her first serves for the match although she did win 70% of them in the second set when she came storming back to force a third set.  Henin also had six double faults to only three for Serena.  In the ace department, Serena had twelve to only four for Henin.  

Serena did hit some punishing groundstrokes at times during the final, but it was an error-strewn match by both players, who only played brilliantly at times.  Overall, Henin and Williams combined for 69 unforced errors compared with only 60 winners.  The other key for the match was that Serena converted 55% of her break point opportunities compared with 33% for Justine.  However, Serena again saved many break points with strong first serves.  Henin may be shorter in stature than Serena, but she can still serve effectively.  Henin will need to put more first serves in the court and raise her service winning percentage in order to emerge the victor in their future encounters because she only won 45% of the points when she had to hit a second serve.

Posted by TC at 11:52 PM |