Serena Williams Back On Top

Serena Williams beat top-ranked Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the Australian Open women's singles final Saturday, making a stirring comeback after needing a medical timeout for a rib injury in the opening set.

Williams stretched her winning streak at Melbourne Park to 14 matches and captured her seventh Grand Slam singles title, ending an 18 months drought without one.

She won here in 2003, but couldn't defend the title last year because of an injured knee.

The seventh-seeded Williams, who fended off three match points in her semifinal win over No. 4-ranked Maria Sharapova on Thursday, won 10 consecutive games to end the second set and race through the third against Davenport.

Davenport, who won the last of her three Grand Slam titles here in 2000, won only eight points in the third set.

After Davenport's backhand return landed long on match point, Williams dropped to her knee and held both arms in the air.

She waved to crowd and held one finger up before walking over to entourage in the crowd and slapping hands with her mother, Oracene.

Davenport sat in her chair, looking disconsolate

She'd raced to a 4-0 lead after 11 minutes in the first set, breaking Williams' serve in the first and third games.

Williams' serve was well down on her usual speed in the first set and Davenport was making the most of it, smacking some aggressive winners on return.

Williams appeared to be favoring her right side each time she hit the ball and, after holding serve for the first time in the fifth game, called for the trainer.

The trainer gave her extended treatment at the side of the court before the treatment continued outside the arena during an eight-minute break.

Williams had a break point in the subsequent game but Davenport held and then served out in the ninth game, closing with a service winner that Williams lunged for a backhand, screaming "ouch!" when she missed.

After fending off six break points to hold the fifth game of the second set, Williams' body language changed. She'd been drooping her shoulders and shaking her head.

She held her next service game at love, looking more determined, and then converted her first break point of the set — after Davenport had game point at 40-0 — for a 5-3 lead.

Williams won nine consecutive points to pull even a one set apiece, closing with her sixth ace of the set and eighth of the match.

She committed just three unforced errors in the deciding set and her first-serve percentage jumped to 80 percent.

Steady morning rain forced the roof at Rod Laver Arena to be closed for the 10th all-American women's final at the Australian Open.