A smash success: Serena ruins racket, Jankovic's comeback bid

All that and some the best primal screaming this side of a $1,000-an-hour Beverly Hills psychiatric clinic was on display on an oppressively humid Saturday afternoon in which Serena Williams overcame her nerves and Jankovic's gritty, never-quit tennis to win the Sony Ericsson Open, a record-tying fifth title at Key Biscayne.

"I smashed a racket?" she asked playfully. "Oh my God. Really? You sure it was me? More than likely, my hand must have been really oily and sweaty. That just doesn't … that's just not me."

It was, perhaps, just the emotional relief she needed to finally put away Jankovic, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

Williams earned $590,000 for the victory.

Her emotional outburst came after Jankovic, who seems never to be out of rallies, came back from 5-0 in the final set to 5-3.

Williams cocked her right arm, bent forward and crashed the edge of her frame into the concrete. With the side of the racket caved in, she then stalked toward her changeover chair and slammed it against the 2-foot wall separating the court from the photographers' pit.

Six points, three more match points and a few more shrieks later, it was over. Finally. It ended one of the oddest finals in the 24-year history of this tournament.

After a 28-minute first set and a 3-0 getaway in the second, reporters were scrambling to find the biggest rout in a women's final in Key Biscayne.

Suddenly, Jankovic, coughing periodically throughout the match because of a lingering sinus infection, found her range at precisely the time Williams began losing some fitness under the sweltering sun.

Jankovic rallied back to 4-5 and broke Williams at love for 5-5 when Williams missed the easiest of backhands into the net. In the upper deck on one side of the stadium, dozens of flag-waving, crazily cheering Serbians were on their feet, sensing a miraculous turnaround.

Jankovic looked up at them and began to smile, as she often does during matches.

Then she rallied from love-40 to go up 6-5 and closed out the set when Williams virtually bunted a 76-mph second serve into the net.

One game into the final set, however, the roller-coaster ride began afresh when Jankovic called for a trainer and a doctor.

Seven minutes later, after they administered nose drops and an inhaler, she then resumed play.

"I started to feel a little bit dizzy in the court, light-headed. Like when I blow my nose my ears were popping like when you're on an airplane. That's how it feels. It's uncomfortable, but what can I do?" she asked rhetorically.

"I kept coughing and coughing, and I coughed my way through the tournament."

Williams, who had played only nine matches before Key Biscayne, earned $590,000 with this victory, bringing her career earnings to approximately $18,970,000.