Serena wins fifth at Key Biscayne

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Serena Williams sat in her chair wearing a weary grin as tournament workers prepared the court for the postmatch ceremony.

“A word of warning,” someone told Williams. “The trophies are really hot because they’ve been sitting in the sun.”

It took a long time on a hot day for Williams to claim her fifth Key Biscayne title. She blew a big lead, battled jitters, threw a tantrum and finally finished off Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 yesterday to win the Sony Ericsson Open.

The elusive victory tested Williams’ temper in the 85-degree sunshine. She broke her racket and screamed at herself before putting away an overhead slam on her eighth championship point.

“I thought I had like 15 match points. I’m glad to know it wasn’t,” Williams said. “I got tight. I guess you can classify that as nervous. … It’s me just feeling like, ’I’m almost there. I would hate to lose this match after being up so much.’ ”

She arrived trimmer at Key Biscayne, thanks to a recent rigorous training regimen, and needed to be in peak condition in the 2½-hour final. Both players held up well in the heat, and some of their best rallies — one lasting 26 shots — came in the final few games.

But Williams also battled a case of butterflies down the stretch.

“Serena really had trouble closing out the match,” Jankovic said. “She looked so nervous out there. I could never believe that a girl who has won so many Grand Slams, so many tournaments, could be that nervous closing out the match. It felt like it was her first time to win that tournament.”

Instead, Williams won for the second year in a row and matched Steffi Graf’s record of five women’s titles at Key Biscayne.

“The Serena and Steffi Open,” said Williams, who lives in nearby Palm Beach Gardens. “I love Steffi Graf. She’s a great champion and was my role model. To even be compared to her is awesome.”

Graf’s husband, Andre Agassi, holds the men’s record with six titles. Bidding for the men’s championship today will be Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko.

Despite Williams’ success at Key Biscayne and elsewhere, she has long been criticized for devoting too much time and energy to such interests as acting and fashion design. But tennis is now the No. 1 priority, she said.

“I wasn’t making as much money, so I’ve got to go back to the bread and butter,” she said with a laugh. “I feel like all I want to do is play tennis.”

She’s 14-1 this year, with her only loss to Jankovic in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.

At first it appeared the rematch might not last an hour. Jankovic, battling a cold, was outplayed for a set and a half and was three points from defeat before she began to find her form.

Williams started to fire nervous shots, lost a serve at love for 5-all, then double-faulted to lose set point and force a third set.

“I was thinking, ’Maybe she’s going to be nice to me,’ ” Jankovic said.

Even the pro-Williams crowd applauded the dogged comeback by Jankovic, who had rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third set to win her opening match.