Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati

Women’s Final: [CR1] Serena Williams (USA) vs. [CR11] Ana Ivanovic (SRB)

Despite a dismal start to the match, Serena reigned in her game enough to come away with a straight set victory.  She took the first set 6-4 in a fight, but that was all the resistance Ivanovic could muster.  She just could not mount enough energy to halt the barrage of aces and powerful groundstrokes from Serena and lost the second set easily 6-1.

Serena had won all previous encounters against Ivanovic since 2006; however, 2014 has seen a resurgence of the form that had taken Ivanovic to the number 1 rank earlier in her career.  All encounters this year had gone the distance, the prediction therefore was that this too would be equal in quality and go the distance as well.

Serena was having none of that; tired and in no mood to be pushed,  she harnessed her focus and power, finally putting it all together to play her best match to date. Yet, Ivanovic deserves some credit, she had a phenomenal tournament and maybe with rest, she can be a potential threat at the US Open.