Serena Easily Tops Maria in Australian Final

Serena Williams saved her best for last at the 2007 Australian Open. Having reached the final mostly on determination and the strength of her serve, she got everything working beautifully in the final, and Maria Sharapova never had any real hope. The final score was 6-1, 6-2. Maria's serve had been off all tournament, and it looked worse in the final. Her groundstrokes rarely showed the bite they had in earlier rounds, largely because Serena was hitting too hard, deep, and away from Maria to give her much chance to execute a clean hit. Ranked #81 coming into this Australian Open after having played only four events in 2006, Serena is back, seemingly better than ever.