Serena Willams wins the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup

3/2/09
tennis
By Max J. Dickstein

Serena Willams wins the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup

Photo credit: Game Face

(Getty Images)

By Max J. Dickstein

Serena Williams won the first BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

The best-of-three sets exhibition match was a long, teetering affair belied by the final score of 6-4, 6-3. The crowd, preoccupied no doubt by the advancing hour and the cold night awaiting them outside, seemed to appreciate that the two sisters did not have to contest a third set.

Serena set up the final with a 6-3 no-ad match win against 2008

French Open champion Ana Ivanovic. Williams twice won service games when

she was down 15-40 at 1-1 and 4-2. Venus Williams beat Jelena Jankovic

6-4 in the night's first semifinal.

That made it Williams sisters 12, Serbs 7. The counting this exhibition result, the Williams sisters are not even all-time head-to-head, 10-10.

The highlight of the night was on the court but it did not involve tennis. Rather, it was former President Bill Clinton's spoken tribute to lifelong women's sports activist Billie Jean King, the pioneer who turned 65 this year and whose honors are beginning to equal her accomplishments, as they should.

Though the night dragged on too long — from before 7 to after 11:30 p.m. — it was a significant night for women's tennis.

P.S. I made an audio recording in which I described the action in situ, but the file is too big, so I apparently can't upload it and you can't hear it. Dear reader, we both share in this loss.

I'll know better next time.
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Serena Willams wins the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup

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