Serena Williams Crumbles, Offers Excuses in WTA Moscow Final

Posted on October 14, 2007

It's a rare post-US Open sight these days in Europe and Asia -- Serena and Venus Williams, both healthy at the same time, in a flurry of tournament activity trying to raise their rankings to both qualify for the year-ending WTA Tour Championships. Unfortunately both sisters are finding it difficult to simply reemerge into tournament play and sweep titles as they've done in past years.

Venus Williams lost this week in the semifinals at Bangkok to unheralded Flavia Pennetta, after losing the Japan Open final a week earlier to Virginie Razzano, neither of which you'll ever see inscribed on a Grand Slam trophy.

On Sunday in Moscow, Serena Williams won the first set 7-5 over Elena Dementieva in the final before the homecountry favorite rolled the American 6-1, 6-1 in the next two sets for the title.

Prior to Sunday's Moscow final, Serena Williams had never lost a set to Dementieva in four career meetings, making a total of 59 unforced errors in the final.

"I made a lot of errors," said Williams, making her signature statement in the post-match conference that she lost the match rather than her opponent winning. "It was me. Every ball I hit I felt was out. It was so frustrating."

Williams broke to begin the third set before losing six straight games and the match.

"She played really unbelievable," said Williams. "She should try to play like that more often."

It was the second 2007 title for the former No. 4-ranked Dementieva, who entered the event at No. 14 on the WTA Tour Rankings. It has been an erratic year for the Russian, who failed to reach a quarterfinal at any of the four Grand Slams.

Williams showed up surprisingly overweight in January at the Australian Open but put on a stunning display to win the title, then won again at her next event in Miami in March. Since then she has failed to win a title in seven tournaments.