Serena Williams Wins Gold Medal in Singles at 2012 London Olympics
It started with the serve and it ended with the serve… on both sides of the net. On Saturday afternoon at the All England Club, a month after she won the 2012 Wimbledon title, Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to win the Gold Medal. There was
a brief moment in the second set when Sharapova had two break points to get back on serve when she was down a set and 3-1, but Serena held strong and went on to claim her first Gold Medal in singles. Serena has won two Gold Medals in women’s doubles and is going for her third on Sunday with sister, Venus Williams.
Serena had a strong serving day, hitting ten aces, but she dominated every aspect of the match by controlling all the points on Sharapova’s serve as well. In the end, Serena’s serve either won points outright or set up the rallies for her while Maria’s serve was a weakness. Serena hit twenty-four winners and had only seven unforced errors. In contrast, the normally aggressive (baseline) game of Maria Sharapova only produced six winners against ten unforced errors and she served five double faults and only one ace. Serena is now 9-2 versus Sharapova and Maria has not even won a set since 2008. In the semis, Serena also dominated current World Number One, Victoria Azarenka, in straight sets. It was an extremely impressive tournament for Serena, who lost three games or less in every set during the Olympic tennis tournament.
Bravo Serena on your "career Golden Slam"!
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