The Australian Open will get about the best final matchup it could have hoped for as Serena Williams, the defending champion who has never lost in the finals of this event, faces former world No. 1 Justine Henin, who has only been back from retirement for a few weeks.
Serena is a sizable favorite to win on WagerWeb.com’s tennis odds.
Henin advanced by crushing Zheng Jie 6-1, 6-0 in 51 minutes Thursday. That was the shortest match of this tournament and the most lopsided semifinal at the Australian Open since Chris Evert beat Andrea Jaeger by the same score in 1982. Serena, who has been battling some injures, was pushed by Li Na, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) in her semifinal. She took part in Friday’s doubles final, too.
Williams and Henin have never squared off in a Grand Slam final. In the most recent of their 13 meetings, in Miami two years ago, Williams won 6-2, 6-0 and leads the head-to-head series 7-6 while also leading on hard courts 4-1 (the surface on which the Aussie is played).
“I’m so happy to play against her, because if I want to win another Grand Slam, I’ll have to beat the best player in the world,” Henin told reporters. “And that’s just the biggest challenge I could get. I didn’t really expect that. It’s more than a dream.”
Henin’s countrywoman, Kim Clijsters, returned from a long retirement to win the final major of 2009, the U.S. Open (beating Serena in the semis), which helped spur Henin out of her 20-month retirement.
Henin probably has no chance if her first serve doesn’t improve: In the semifinals and quarterfinals, her first-serve percentage didn’t top 51 percent. Serena won 86 percent of points behind her first serve in the semifinal and had 12 aces. Williams leads the women’s field in aces (averaging almost 10 per match) and first-serve points won.
And Serena is 5-1 in Grand Slam finals when sister Venus isn’t her opponent – the only loss in 2004 to Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon. Henin, because she has not yet played three tournaments in her return, is unseeded. The last unseeded winner of the event was Serena, in 2007 when, returning from injury, she was rated 81st in the world.
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