This year marks a decade since Serena Williams won the most unexpected of her 22 Grand Slam titles, at the 2007 Australian Open.
The American had just endured the worst year of her tennis career, failing to reach the quarter-finals of either the Australian or US Opens, while also missing the French Open and Wimbledon due to injury.
In fact, Williams contested just four tournaments in 2006, failed to win a title in the entire calendar year, and at one point dropped out of the world’s top 100.
She had not defeated a top ten opponent since overcoming then-world number one Lindsay Davenport to win the 2005 Australian Open, which stood as her most recent title entering the 2007 season.
Williams came to the Australian Open out of shape and ranked 81st in the world. Nothing much was expected, but over that fortnight dished up one of the most inspiring runs in the tournament’s recent history.
In the first round, she came up against 22nd-seeded Italian Mara Santangelo, who had reached the fourth round in 2004. Williams won in straight sets, then defeated Luxembourg’s Anne Kremer to set up a third-round showdown against Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova.
It was thought at this stage Williams’ tournament would be over, the then-25-year-old having lost at the same stage 12 months previously, to Daniela Hantuchova – the loss that preceded the American’s descent down the rankings, to the point where she entered the US Open later that year unseeded.
Petrova struck a psychological pre-match blow by saying that Serena and her sister Venus no longer possessed the aura that saw them dominate women’s tennis earlier in the century.
The sisters had contested four major finals in a row between the 2002 French Open and 2003 Australian Open, with Serena winning all four, completing the ‘Serena Slam’ at just 21 years of age.
The psychology appeared to work in Petrova’s favour when she took the opening set 6-1 in just 29 minutes, serving three aces to close it out, and had the younger Williams sister on the ropes 5-3 in the second set.
However, the American reeled off four games in a row to take the second set in less than an hour and send the match to a deciding set.
Williams broke for a 2-0 lead early, and after two hours and five minutes, Williams emerged from her toughest test yet to progress to the fourth round.
Awaiting Williams was Jelena Jankovic, who was starting to raise the profile of tennis, along with Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic, in Serbia. Jankovic was the first of the trio to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, doing so at the previous year’s US Open where she lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne.
This time around, 11th-seeded Jankovic was no match for the resurgent Williams, going down in straight sets.
After the match, the American, who was accused of lacking match fitness after her injury-riddled 2006 season, gestured “number one” with her index finger.
Next was Israeli teenager Shahar Pe’er, who had upset third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
Williams again started poorly, dropping the first set 3-6, before hitting back to take the second 6-2.
With Williams just two points away from defeat, as Pe’er served for the match at 6-5 in the final set, the Israeli dropped serve and suddenly the score was 6-6.
Williams held in the next game to make it 7-6, before Pe’er lost the match after sending a backhand wide.
In the final four, the American came up against Czech teen sensation Nicole Vaidisova, who matched Maria Sharapova’s feat of reaching two Grand Slam semi-finals at age 17.
Williams dropped serve in the opening game, before breaking back to level the opening set at 3-all. Vaidisova broke later in the set and had a set point on her serve at 5-4, but Williams forced a tiebreak, which she took 7-5 after leading 5-1.
The Czech was broken twice in the second set, before the teenager pegged back four games in succession, including saving three match points from 0-40 down (and holding) in the ninth game.
The American’s tenth ace of the match brought around her sixth match point, which she converted to advance to her third Australian Open final, to face 19-year-old Maria Sharapova.
It was the pair’s second meeting in a Grand Slam final, after Sharapova famously upset the American, who was chasing a hat-trick of titles at the All England Club, at Wimbledon in 2004.
The Russian entered her third Grand Slam final (and second in succession, after defeating Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final of the 2006 US Open) on the back of an impressive 6-4, 6-2 victory over Kim Clijsters in the semi-finals.
Speaking ahead of her rematch against Williams, Sharapova said: “I’m excited for that. She came into this tournament without any expectations, and she is playing great tennis.
“To be in the final of a Grand Slam, that takes a lot of hard work. She’s won many of these titles – I have a lot to catch up.
What shaped as an intriguing final turned into a nightmare for Sharapova, as Williams won the opening set 6-1 – including the first five games of the match without reply.
Serena was just as merciless in the second, dropping just two games, as she completed her comeback with a straight-sets humiliation of the stunned Sharapova.
It was Serena’s third Australian Open title, her eighth Grand Slam overall, and the most improbable of her 22 Grand Slam titles to date – yet it was sealed in the most devastating fashion possible.
A lot has happened in the decade since that most unexpected title; Serena has won 14 more major titles, and this year has the chance to equal, or even overtake, the record of 24 held by Margaret Court.
If she achieves this, she will become undoubtedly the greatest tennis player, male or female, of the modern era.
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