New York, Sept 12: Super Saturday at the US Open just seemed to get better and better for Serena Williams, moved by a sense of history and a deep appreciation of family on the day she won her first Grand Slam singles title.It was a brilliant day that began under bright sunshine and ended late under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the 17-year-old first overpowered world number one Martina Hingis for the Open crown and then joined sister Venus to win a doubles semi-final.``It's really amazing,'' she said, summing up the day. By beating top seed Hingis 6-3, 7-6, the seventh-seeded Williams pocketed $ 750,000 and became the first black woman to win a Grand Slam singles crown since American Althea Gibson claimed the US championship 41 years ago.``It's really exciting,'' she said about the historical significance of her victory. Williams said one of Gibson's best friends told her ``she wanted to see another African-American win a Slam before her time is up.'' ``I'm so excited I had a chance toaccomplish that while she's still alive. It's just really great.''The 72-year-old Gibson, who has been seriously ailing, was a prodigious force in the 1950s, winning two US Opens, two Wimbledons and a French Open crown.``It's really amazing for me just to even have an opportunity to be compared to as great a player as Althea Gibson,'' said Williams after triumphing in her first Grand Slam final.She said she was especially motivated after seeing Hingis eliminate her older sister in three gruelling sets in Saturday's semifinals.After all was said and done, it seemed the only surprise for the cool, calm and supremely confident Serena Williams came while she was in the television studio after the singles final.She was told she had a telephone call from Auckland, New Zealand. ``I thought for sure my day couldn't get any better,'' she said. ``Next thing I knew, someone was telling me the president of the United States wants to talk. I was thinking, wow.''Results(country, seeding inparenthesis)Men singles semifinals: Todd Martin (US, 7) bt Cedric Pioline (France) 6-4, 6-1, 6-2; Andre Agassi (US, 2) bt Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Russia, 3) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.Women singles final: Serena Williams (US, 7) bt Martina Hingis (Swiss, 1) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).Doubles semi-finals: Serena Williams/Venus Williams (US, 5) bt Mary Pierce/Barbara Schett (France/Austria, 12) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.
