The Baseline Top 5: Miami Open WTA finals

With the Miami Open leaving Crandon Park for a new home next year, it’s time for a look back at some of the most memorable finals played on its courts, starting with the best of the WTA:

1. 2007 Final: Serena Williams vs. Justine Henin

After suffering the rare indignity of a bagel in the first set, Williams scratched and clawed the rest of the way against her archrival Henin. Serving for the match at 5-4 in the second, Henin flinched just long enough for Williams to wrestle it away at 7-5 and close out the third 6-3. This was just one of the many three-act dramas that would unfold between the two.

2. 1998 Final: Venus Williams vs. Anna Kournikova

1998 was arguably peak Kournikova. She was on every magazine cover, and her game seemed to be rounding into form. At the Miami Open that year, she made her first WTA final, ranked No. 16 in the world. She played Williams and even managed to take a set off her before Venus won the second and third sets 6-4, 6-1. As a singles player, it was all downhill from there for Kournikova, but for a moment, the hype that came with her image seemed more than justified.

3. 2003 Final: Serena Williams vs. Jennifer Capriati

Talk about bad luck. Starting in 2001, Capriati found herself staring across the net at an ascendant Williams sister in the Miami Open final three years in a row. She would lose all three matches. As she had in her 2001 meeting with Venus, Capriati jumped out to a one-set lead before discovering anew the extent of a Williams sister’s competitiveness. Serena pulled out all the stops to jump out to a 3-0 in the second set, but Capriati hung around, eventually erasing a double-break deficit to get back on serve at 4-5. It was all she had left. She won only one game the rest of the match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtFdHKx2F08

4. 1999 Final: Venus Williams vs. Serena Williams

The world was just getting acquainted with the phenomenon of the Williams sisters when Venus and Serena met for the first time in a final—at the Miami Open. It seems a particularly historic occasion now as they embarked to dominate the sport and play each other in many more finals. As for the match itself, it was an athletic, shot-making display that saw Venus’s more polished game prevail 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvFDpzl72VY

5. 2001 Final: Venus Williams vs. Jennifer Capriati

This one had a little bit of everything. A raucous crowd was on-hand when Williams met Capriati in the 2001 final. Serving at 6-5 in the third set, Capriati looked like she’d final wrestled control of the match from Williams. Then a nail-biting 30-point game ensued.

Capriati arrived at an eighth championship point, only to watch it slip away as Venus broke to send it into a tiebreaker she’d win 7-4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGk6dCD-w-E