Serena beats Henin, wins Australian Open for 12th Grand Slam

Serena Williams showed Henin who the better player was when she beat her rival in the 2010 Australian Open champion match. It was the first grand slam final between the best players of the previous decade and the current #1 came out on top, 6-4 3-6 6-2. Serena goes home with her 12th major title, tying American legend Billie Jean King in fifth place in terms of number of majors won. Serena has now won her 5th Australian Open after earlier wins in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009. This is the first time she has defended her title in Melbourne, and only the second time for her to defend a Grand Slam title.

Serena's toughest opponent during the tournament was #7 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus who was up a set and 4-0 before Serena came back to win the set in a tiebreak and the third set at 6-1. Serena could have have closed Henin in two straight sets, but Henin fought hard in the second set to force a decider. At one time, Henin won five straight games and 15 straight points to go from 2-3 down in the second set to lead 1-0 in the third set.

After three straight breaks, Serena switched into a different level and Henin was never able to catch up. She served very strongly in the last service game, got three match points, and closed it out with a winner on her second match point. Serena lay down on the court to celebrate her victory. She now leads 8-6 against Henin in their head-to-head career meetings. She will retain her #1 ranking, while Henin will remain unranked because she still has only played 2 WTA tournaments in the past 12 months.

Serena takes home the singles title along with the doubles title she won with her sister Venus. She has won AUS$$2,100,000 for the singles trophy, and will share the AUS$450,000 doubles winners' cheque with her sister Venus.

Match Facts:

- The total match time is 127 minutes. The first set took the longest, and the third set was the fastest.
- Serena had 12 aces against 3 double faults. Henin had 4 aces and 6 double faults.
- Serena had more winners, 32 to 28
- It wasn't Serena's best match in the tournament as she had 37 unforced errors.
- Serena won 90 points in total, Justine had 85 points