Serena returns to top

NEW YORK – Three-time U.S. Open champion. Nine-time Grand Slam winner. And now, No. 1 in the world for the first time in five years.

Serena Williams is all that today, 18 days from her 27th birthday, after winning her first Open in six years and nine years after her first, with a grunting, grinding and, in the end, racket-heaving 6-4, 7-5 victory Sunday night over Jelena Jankovic, who with a victory also could have regained the No. 1 spot she held for a week this summer.

Instead, it’s Serena, not in beaded braids or her old cat suit, but a lady in red winning her first Slam since 2007’s Australian Open to run her record in major championship finals to 9-3 and giving her two more such titles than her sister Venus, whom she ousted in the quarterfinals.

She also regained the top spot in the world after the longest absence since the rankings began in 1975.

“I’m so excited,” she said on the court afterward. “I wasn’t even going for No. 1. That’s like an added bonus. I was just playing and playing.”

With Venus (who beat her in this year’s Wimbledon final) and their mother, Oracine, watching from the family and friends box, while father Richard watched two rows up from center court, Serena won a match in which she played the role of slugger.

Meanwhile, the second-seeded Serb (who beat Serena in this year’s Australian quarterfinals) played the role of counterpuncher — or a rangy get-everything center fielder.

But although that enabled Jankovic to hold her own against an opponent error-prone at the start (committing 12 errors in her first 3 1/2 games) and even produce the match’s first service break three games in, she eventually couldn’t keep up in her first Grand Slam final against someone with whom she split their first six matches.

“Serena was a better player tonight,” Jankovic said. “She was just too good.”

In her fourth Open final (Serena lost to Venus in 2001), Williams ultimately won by sweeping all 14 sets she played, something she also did in 2002. She is also the first American champion since that year, as no American even reached the final until she did again this year.

Williams answered Jankovic’s early service break by promptly breaking her next two service games, then began cranking up the volume, blasting a 112-mph ace followed by a 120 service winner on consecutive points while winning a fourth straight game to build a 5-2 lead.

She didn’t put the first set away until the two exchanged breaks again.

Then in the second set, Williams squandered her first nine break points, while Jankovic blew three set points at 5-3 and another by double-faulting at 5-4 before Serena cashed in her 10th breaker to make it 5-all.

She then completed another four-game run to seal the deal by breaking Jankovic’s serve in the set’s final game, with her second match point.

Murray stops Nadal

Andy Murray finished a stunning, rain-interrupted 6-2, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4 victory over Rafael Nadal to reach his first Grand Slam final and stop the No. 1-ranked Nadal’s 19-match winning streak at major tournaments.

Trying to become the first British man to win a major tennis championship since Fred Perry at the 1936 U.S. Open, Murray will face four-time defending champion Roger Federer in the final today.

“He’s got loads of experience in these situations,” Murray said, “and it’s something new to me.”

The sixth-seeded Murray won the first two sets against Nadal and was down a break at 3-2 in the third when play was suspended Saturday because of Tropical Storm Hanna.

“Tough to sleep,” Murray said.

As should surprise no one, Nadal made a stand Sunday, taking the third set and going ahead 3-1 in the fourth. But Murray took five of the last six games, breaking Nadal twice and ending the Spaniard’s bid to make his first final at the U.S. Open.