LONDON: When Serena Williams completed her career Golden Slam by winning an Olympic rout, she began the celebration with a long scream. She hopped a dozen times on the grass she loves, waved to the cheering crowd and hopped some more.
Williams was still jumping about as she put on her Team USA jacket for the medal ceremony. Then she began to dance.
These days, no one can match her moves.
Williams became only the second woman to achieve a Golden Slam, winning the most lopsided women’s final in Olympic history on Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1.
The victory completed a remarkable run of domination by the No. 4-seeded Williams, who lost only 17 games in six matches en route to her first singles gold medal.
It took the No. 3-seeded Sharapova 45 minutes to win a game, and by then she trailed 6-0, 3-0. Williams dominated with her serve and repeatedly blasted winners from the baseline, taking a big swing with almost every stroke despite gusty conditions on Centre Court.
The career Golden Slam was first achieved by Steffi Graf, who did it when she won at the Olympics in 1988 after sweeping all four major titles.
Williams can add the gold medal to her 14 Grand Slam singles championships, the most of any active woman.
Serena’s the first player to achieve a Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.
When Sharapova wasn’t lunging or whiffing as the ball whizzed past, she was caught off-balance trying to block back shots at her feet.
Sharapova completed a career Grand Slam in June by winning the French Open, but Williams beat her for the eighth consecutive time. The most one-sided previous women’s final was in 1920, when Suzanne Lenglen of France beat Dorothy Holman of Britain 6-3, 6-0.
Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus won the bronze by beating No. 14-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-3, 6-4. Sharapova’s loss allowed Azarenka to retain the No. 1 ranking.
Meanwhile, India’s tennis campaign at the Games met with a disappointing end as Leander Paes and Sania Mirza were knocked out in the mixed doubles quarter-finals on Saturday.
Paes and Sania lost 5-7 6-7(5) to the top seeded pair of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus in the last-eight stage match, which was spread over two days due to bad light.
The Indians were trailing 2-3 in the second set, when play was stopped on Friday.
Paes and Sania did fight bravely but the failure to cash in on the break points dented their chances. Out of eight chances in the second set, they converted one.
Nevertheless, they fought hard and stretched the second set to a tie-break, which was a tight affair.
The Mixed doubles event was considered India’s best medal bet as the draw was of 16 pairs and a team needed to win three matches to win a bronze.
“We are playing together again and I have found someone I can play with and have fun with. We were playing the number one players in the world and we put up a good show against them,” Paes said after the match. (Agencies)