Serena Williams captured her 15th Grand Slam title and fourth career US Open crown with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory over World No 1 Victoria Azarenka.
In the first three-set final at the US Open since 1995, American fourth seed Williams joined her sister Venus and Steffi Graf as the only women to win Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open in the same year.
Pushed to her limit for the only time in the Flushing Meadows fortnight, Williams was down a break twice in the third set but battled back to win after two hours and 18 minutes last night when Azarenka swatted a backhand long.
“I honestly can’t believe I won,” Williams said. “I was preparing my runner-up speech. I’m so shocked. It’s remarkable.”
Williams, who turns 31 on September 26, became the second-oldest US Open women’s champion in the Open era.
Australian Margaret Court was one month past her 31st birthday when she won the 1973 title.
Not since Martina Navratilova in 1987 had a woman won the US Open title past her 30th birthday.
Taking home a top prize of $1.9 million, Williams won her 45th career title after finishing second to Australia’s Samantha Stosur in 2011 following a year of health problems that included blood clots on her lungs.
Williams won prior US Open titles in 1999, 2002 and 2008 and added Grand Slam crowns at the 2002 French Open, the 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010 Australian Opens and Wimbledon in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010 and 2012.
Olympic bronze medalist Azarenka, whose 1-9 record against Williams in prior matches included losses in this year’s Olympic and Wimbledon semi-finals, won her first Grand Slam title at this year’s Australian Open.
But no women’s top seed has won a US Open title since Justine Henin in 2007 and none has won a Grand Slam title since Serena Williams in 2010 at Wimbledon.
“Serena deserves to win. She showed how true a champion she is. I definitely gave it all today. Stepping off this court I will have no regrets,” Azarenka said.