Key Biscayne: Serena Williams screamed at herself, broke her racket and then finally finished off Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 for her fifth title at the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday.
Serena survived some shaky in the last set and an improbable comeback by Jelena, who trailed 5-3 in the second set. Serena closed out the elusive victory on her eighth championship point with an overhead slam.
"I thought I had like 15 match points. I'm glad to know it wasn't," Serena said.
"I got tight. I guess you can classify that as nervous. ... It's me just feeling like, 'I'm almost there. I would hate to lose this match after being up so much."'
She arrived at Key Biscayne a trimmer Serena, thanks to a recent rigorous training regimen, and needed to be in peak condition in the 2½-hour final. Both players held up well in the heat, and some of their best rallies - one lasting 26 shots - came in the final few games.
But Serena also battled a bad case of butterflies.
"Serena really had trouble closing out the match," Jelena said. "She looked so nervous out there. I could never believe that a girl who has won so many Grand Slams, so many tournaments, could be that nervous closing out the match. It felt like it was her first time to win that tournament."
Instead, Serena won for the second year in a row and matched Steffi Graf's record of five women's titles at Key Biscayne.
"The Serena and Steffi Open," said Serena, who lives in nearby Palm Beach Gardens.
"I love Steffi Graf. She's a great champion and was my role model. To even be compared to her is awesome."
Graf's husband, Andre Agassi, holds the men's record with six titles.
Bidding for the men's championship on Sunday will be Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko.
Despite Serena' success at Key Biscayne and elsewhere, she has long been criticised for devoting too much time and energy to such interests as acting and fashion design. But tennis is now the No. 1 priority, she said.
"I wasn't making as much money, so I've got to go back to the bread and butter," she said with a laugh. "I feel like all I want to do is play tennis."
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She's 14-1 this year, with her only loss to Jelena in the quarter-finals at the Australian Open.
At first it appeared the rematch might not last an hour.
Jelena, battling a cold, was outplayed for a set and a half and three points from defeat before she began to find her form.
Serena started to spray nervous shots, lost her serve at love for 5-all, then double-faulted to lose set point and force a third set.
"I was thinking, 'Maybe she's going to be nice to me,"' Jelena said.
Even the pro-Serena crowd applauded the dogged comeback by Jelena, who had rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third set to win her opening match. And there was more drama to come.
Angered by her lapse, Serena raced to a 5-0 lead in the third set but again wavered.
She had her first championship point in the next game, another at 5-1 and three more at 5-2.
Serena twice exhorted herself with screams but lost that game to make it 5-3, then slammed her racket against the hardcourt and sent the mangled remains skipping into the side wall.
"That was scary, to be honest," Jelena said. "I told her after the match, 'You really smashed that racket to pieces.' She's like, 'I had to."'
When asked about the tantrum at her postmatch news conference, Serena played coy.
"I smashed a racket?" she said. "My hand must have been really oily and sweaty. That's just not me."
Jelena saved two more match points in the final game before Serena closed out the victory with her 51st winner. That total included 12 aces.
"She was just too strong," Jelena said. "You know how I felt, to be honest? It's like a heavyweight champion, and I'm a feather champion, you know? That's how I felt. I cannot match up against her. Just too much power for me to handle."
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