NEW YORK -- A woman who at 17 won a U.S. Open and looked almost disbelieving won a U.S. Open at 26 Sunday night and commenced thoroughly hopping.
So this Serena Williams hopped and hopped and hopped, seven hops in all, her euphoria suggestive of the wait it took to attain it and the struggle of beating Jelena Jankovic to earn it.
"I'm sorry, I'm so excited," Williams told Jankovic as they hugged at the net after their stirring 6-4, 7-5 final that gave Williams her third U.S. Open title, her ninth Grand Slam singles title and, more poignantly, her first U.S. Open title since 2002 and her first Slam title since January 2007.
"I think this title meant more to Serena than any title Serena ever won," her father, mentor and co-coach, Richard Williams, said while leaning on a table just outside Arthur Ashe Stadium moments later. "I can't speak for her, but that's what I think."
Serena differed from that only slightly, deeming all nine Grand Slams special and speaking of aiming toward double digits, but said, "I'm so excited I can't even describe it," later adding, "I feel so young and I feel so energized."
The meaning certainly seemed palpable when Richard stepped out onto the court after a tense 2-hour 4-minute final, and Serena just about keeled over leaning into him for an embrace. It reflected her five-year struggle to return to No. 1, which she did with the win, and her woe over her Wimbledon final loss to her sister Venus, plus the strife of her tete-a-tete with the human backboard known as Jankovic.
As Jankovic graced her first Grand Slam final and won over New York with her serial smiling, she displayed her knack for running down just about every ball in creation. Williams' hitting partner Aleksander Bajin said that in emulating Jankovic in practice, "I was running . . . and just trying to get as many balls back as I could."
A harbinger of how the finalists would crush groundstrokes came early when Williams creamed a forehand and dropped an earring.
Repeatedly, the No. 2-ranked Jankovic would push Williams to toil, and repeatedly, Williams would reveal her reacquired knack for shutting off her error flow in the pivotal moments. She made 39 unforced errors to 22 for Jankovic, and also 44 winners to Jankovic's 15, but Williams grew airtight late in the second set, during which she faced four set points.
