USA's Serena Williams is over the moon after winning the championship point against Serbian Jelena Jankovic during the US Open women's singles final at the Flushing Meadows on Sunday. The win was Serena's ninth career Grand Slam title and saw her catapulted back into the top of the world rankings for the first time in five years.Photo: AFP

On the very first point of the match, Serena Williams hit a backhand so hard that her earring flew off.
Turns out she was just getting warmed up.
Williams kept pounding away, her shots and shouts getting louder with every stroke. And when she finished off Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 7-5 Sunday night for the U.S. Open championship and a ninth Grand Slam title, Williams really went wild.
She flung her racket high into the sky, hollering and hopping in a celebration that even she thought might've been over the top.
“I'm sorry I got so excited,” she told Jankovic when they met at the net.
Williams' father, Richard, jumped to his feet after the final point. He didn't seem to expect his daughter to do the same.
“I never knew Serena to be very, very excited. I knew Serena to be very, very mean,” he said after it was over. “I describe her as being a combination of a pit bull dog, a young Mike Tyson and an alligator.”
The fourth-seeded Williams beat sister Venus in the quarterfinals and barreled through this tournament without losing a set. This win did more than earn Serena her third silver trophy at Flushing Meadowsit assured she will return to No. 1 in the rankings for the time since August 2003, the longest gap at the top for a woman.
Pretty good for someone whose ranking once plummeted to No. 139.
“It's been so long,” she said.
The American recovered from a poor day on break point conversions, missing on nine of her first 10 in the up-and-down second set with the Serb second seed, who will stand second behind Williams in next week's rankings.
But Williams found her big game when she needed it, breaking twice in the concluding six games and going through on her second match point as she tossed her racket into the air after producing a winner.
Williams calmed down in time for the on-court trophy presentation, and smiled when she received the winner's check for $1.5 million. Still full of personality, Jankovic wondered aloud, “How much did I get?”
Jankovic earned $750,000 for her first showing in a Grand Slam final.
This was the 13th straight time that the women's championship at the U.S. Open was decided in straight sets. The second-seeded Jankovic certainly had her chancesup 5-3 in the second set, she led 40-0 with Williams serving.
“I felt I had her. I had her, because she was really tired at the end of the second set,” Jankovic said. “Who knows what would have happened if I had got into a third set? I probably would have had the upper hand. But who knows?”
Jankovic won over fans with more than her determined play and her penchant for doing the splits to reach shots. She's a crowd favourite, often talking to people in the stands and frequently watching herself on the giant video boards high above Arthur Ashe Stadium.
At one point, she saw herself on the screen and promptly fixed her hair.
“They should turn it off, because I keep looking,” she said. “You see your big face up there and you can't help but look up.”
Venus Williams got ample air time, too. Sitting in the guest box, she cheered on the sister she teamed up with to win the Olympics doubles title.
Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam championship since the 2007 Australian Open, and took over the No. 1 ranking Jankovic held last month for exactly one week.
“I feel so young and I feel so energized,” Williams said. “Sometimes, I'd wake up at 6 in the morning to go practice and it was too dark.”
Williams and Jankovic originally were scheduled to play Saturday night, but rain from Tropical Storm Hanna delayed their match.