Then, as Williams was being presented with her $1.5 million check, Jankovic asked, “How much did I get?”

The answer, as she would soon find out, was $750,000. “So now I have a lot of money to spend,” she said, laughing, in her news conference. “Tomorrow is my day to go shopping.”

The match had tense rallies and dizzying momentum swings. Jankovic had 15 winners and 22 unforced errors. Williams finished with 44 winners, offsetting her 39 unforced errors. Emboldened by her Olympic gold medal in doubles with her older sister Venus Williams, Williams came to the net 22 times in the second set and won 20 of the points.

High drama

It was little wonder that the match was high on drama. Williams is a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, and Jankovic, who has battled a host of injuries from head to toe this year, has said she probably would have gone to school and studied theater if she hadn’t become a professional tennis player.

“I got the trophy here,” Jankovic said, “and I thought, you know, I should have gotten an Oscar for all this drama throughout the week. Despite, you know, getting a trophy, I should have gotten, you know, a trophy for the acting, for my drama. I think I’ve done a great job.”