| 2001 U.S. Open Final Results and Analysis | |
Dateline: 09/10/01
Well before Venus and Serena Williams had made the 2001 U.S. Open women's singles final, the event had been elevated to an unprecedented status, to be broadcast nationwide in prime time by the CBS network. By the time Saturday night rolled around, the hype was in high gear. At 8:00 p.m., nearly 7% of American homes were tuned in to see Venus and Serena, but first, of course, a Broadway cast and Diana Ross had to sing God Bless America, and Venus and Serena had to pose with coin-tosser Billie Jean King. The tennis began around 8:45.
Just over an hour later, it was over. With 36 unforced errors, Sernea hadn't made it much of a match. Venus won 6-2, 6-4. Both players were, as usual, hitting as hard as they could on almost every shot. Serena missed wildly again and again, at one point putting her hand over her face with embarrassment. Venus had a few sloppy streaks, accumulating 19 unforced errors, but when she needed to, she was able to put the ball in the right place, and her hardest shots, were, on average, significantly harder than Serena's. Overall, she looked very much the older sister that she is, playing with greater control and court sense.
Both young women have developed great charm in interviews, and they gave the crowd, which had been fairly quiet during the match, some endearing moments and good laughs as they described, through the stadium loudspeakers, how it had felt to play each other. To put it simply, both had mixed emotions. Serena, the 1999 champion, was only slightly disappointed for herself, while happy for Venus. Venus was happy to have defended her title, but sorry to have to see Serena lose. This was only a glimpse of what seems to be an exceptionally close relationship. As the first sisters to play in a Grand Slam final since 1884, they handled the situation well, even if the quality of play could have been better.
The quality of play in the men's singles final on Sunday was decidedly unbalanced. Lleyton Hewitt won 7-6(7-4), 6-1, 6-1, handing Pete Sampras his worst defeat at a U.S. Open since 1989. Hewitt played a smart, clean match, committing only 13 unforced errors while repeatedly forcing Sampras to handle low volleys and occasionally passing him outright. Sampras, though, made Hewitt's work much too easy, missing an incredible number of playable volleys and groundstrokes.
