It was all set up to be Serena Williams’ day of redemption. She was playing at Flushing Meadows for the first time since her infamous, match-ending tirade of two years earlier, and she spent the fortnight doing her best to remind every fan of the women’s game what they had been missing—namely, the best tennis the WTA has to offer. She had brushed aside putative world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets in the semifinals; now it was the 10th anniversary of September 11th, and Serena said she wanted to win it for the memory of that day’s victims.
You probably couldn’t have found a single person among the 23,000 inside Arthur Ashe Satadium that afternoon who didn’t believe she would succeed. Williams was facing Sam Stosur of Australia, a woman who had frozen in her only other appearance in a Grand Slam final, when she was upset by Francesca Schiavone at the 2010 French Open. When Stosur started nervously against Williams, it looked like we were in for a very quick day. I can remember wondering for a split-second whether Stosur would would win a game.
It was indeed a quick afternoon, but Stosur won more than one game. She won 12, in fact, blowing a sluggish and angry Serena off the court, 6-2, 6-3. The match is best remembered for Williams’s sustained berating of chair umpire Eva Asderaki, but that ugly incident overshadowed a stunningly gutsy performance for Stosur. She won the match they way it should be won, with her best shot of the match, a forehand return winner.
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