Choke and cheese

Midway through the lopsided third set, it appeared obvious to everyone under the closed roof in Rod Laver Arena, including Davenport, that Williams was on her way to her second Australian Open title and seventh Grand Slam singles title.

The final, roller-coaster score was 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in favor of Williams, who once again proved here that tenacity is more important than consistency. She was not in top form, making unforced errors in bunches in the early stages of her big matches, but she plugged the leaks in her game with the tournament on the line, saving three match points against Sharapova and wresting control from a strangely cooperative Davenport in the second set.

Williams (23) now looks poised to make a run at regaining the top spot in the sport she dominated before a knee injury and a family tragedy knocked her off her pedestal.

Williams missed eight months of competition in 2003 and 2004 after surgery and the murder of her older half sister Yetunde Price. Though she reached the Wimbledon final last summer, losing to Sharapova, this was her first Grand Slam title since her return to the game.

Despite having treatment for what she said was a back injury early in the first set, the seventh-seeded Williams showed few signs of fragility down the stretch against the top-seeded Davenport, who was playing in her first Grand Slam final in nearly five years.

The pivotal game came at 2-2 in the second, when Williams saved six break points on her serve and seemed to work her way back into the match. ‘‘My arm was hurting, because I was serving too much and so hard’’, Williams said. ‘‘I kept telling myself: ‘I don’t care if my arm falls off. I’m not losing this game.’ I said, ‘Let’s keep fighting, and we’ll see what happens.’’’

It was a Pavlovian response, considering that Williams has now overcome match points in Australia twice and gone on to win the title. In 2003, she saved two in her semifinal against Kim Clijsters.

Though Davenport quickly held serve to make the score 3-3, she would not win another game, and she played a particularly disastrous game to lose her serve at 3-4, double-faulting twice after holding a 40-0 lead. ‘‘A horrible lapse’’, said Davenport, who never recovered, missing serves and ground strokes in bunches as Williams turned up the velocity.

The match ended appropriately after 1 hour 29 minutes with a missed Davenport return. Williams sank to her knees, her powerful arms held high overhead.

(The New York Times)