Serena Williams was in an early hole in the Cincinnati final against Ana Ivanovic, trailing 3-1, and three times had to save a break point to avoid falling behind two breaks of serve.
It was Ivanovic who owned the start of the match, breaking Williams in the opening game with aggressive returns and stretched her lead with smart serve locations. The points were lightning quick, with only two points in the first five games making it past five shots. Developing a point was thrown out the window as both players employed hard-hitting, first-strike tennis. Williams hit very hard early in the point but was missing way too much. With Ivanovic serving at 2-1, deuce, Williams had already collected eight forehand return errors.
She made 15 forehand return errors in her semifinal victory over Caroline Wozniacki and also another 15 in her semifinal loss to her sister, Venus, in Montréal the previous week. It's been a weak spot in her game this summer. And then in the blink of an eye everything changed. Avoiding the double break energized Williams, and Ivanovic was left to ponder what could have been an incredible start. Williams then reeled off 10 straight points, which shook the confidence of her Serbian opponent and essentially won the American the match right there. Williams won 11 of the last 13 games in posting a 6-4, 6-1 victory, winning 21 of the last 24 points of the match including the last seven straight. Things fell off a cliff for Ivanovic. Williams hit 12 aces for the match, dominating the power game at the beginning of the point. In the deuce court, four aces went down the middle and three out wide, while in the ad court four went down the middle and just one out wide.
