When Ana Ivanovic won the French Open to break Henin’s title after winning it three times in a row, tennis fans declared the young Serbian as the next player to dominate the sport, an image of beauty and grace that hasn’t been seen in the sport since Martina Hingis ruled the women’s side. Ivanovic began to wilt under the pressure. Maria Sharapova is eliminated for the rest of the year with a shoulder injury while Jelena Jankovic has to win a major before she can claim the top ranking with confidence. It made the Williams sisters fight each other to claim the No.1 female tennis player.

Serena lost to Venus in the Wimbledon final.

But the sisters returned to court together to win the double crown moments later. Serena went on to win the US Open but not after she avenged her defeat to her sister when she beat her in return during the quarter-finals. Then began a tug of war between the sisters for the right called no.1.

The sisters have started their live season of Grand Slam tennis in contrasting ways but with positive results. Venus didn’t reach round four but she teamed up with Serena to win the women’s doubles title when they beat Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-3. Serena then returned to the Rod Laver Arena the following day and faced Dinara Safina and won a convincing 6-0, 6-3 win to win the 2009 Women’s Australian Open and reclaim the No. 1 spot from previous owner Jelena Jankovic.

Australian Open Tennis History

Serena’s poor win over Safina has ushered in the rise of the younger Williams as the most dominant female tennis player of her time. She ruled the women’s circuit in 2002-2003 and proved to be someone very hard to beat at that time. He has now won back-to-back Grand Slam titles including last year’s US Open. It also insured her place in the history of women’s tennis results. His single win has earned him the title of Grand Slam no. 10 and overtook Monica Seles for seventh. The double win was their eight Grand Slam titles as partners. He is the last player either male or female to win all four Grand Slam crowns and with his win at the Australian Open this year, he now has a chance to win all four major titles in one season. She will not only be unbeaten in singles but her victories in women’s doubles along with Venus set her to become the player who will rule women’s tennis for a long time.

Safina’s attitude after losing the match was quite impressive. Really, he couldn’t argue with the fact that Serena just beat him. Williams ensured that Safina would not be able to be in the match and she continued to press aggressively. Safina is friendly enough to admit that she lost to the best players and should even call herself a “ballgirl”. And Safina is right, everything is up to Serena now.