EW YORK — About nine days after Serena Williams lost in the Wimbledon final to her elder sister, she was still killing herself, unable to shake her mind of the errors that came late in a match she felt should have avoided.  She couldn’t fully accept  that a player who has a better feel for grass simply outplayed her. There was nothing to be happy about.  But as it turrns out, there are some benefits to being a perfectionist.

Instead of kicking back and enjoying another amazing title run, Serena kept her nose to the grindstone and, finally, after a season of hard work that wasn’t yielding the results she desired, broke her own glass ceiling by winning her third U.S. Open title with a highly entertaining 6-4, 7-5 victory over Serbian diva Jelena Jankovic in the final.

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“If Serena stops trying to stay perfect, she’ll win more and easier because she can be difficult to work with,” her father and coach, Richard told IT. “No one is perfect. If you lose, take your ass to the next match. To sit there and dwell over a match, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

There were moments at the end of the second set when it looked like Serena’s legs might give in as Jankovic was delighting in quick-handed blows and full sprints sideline to sideline, but the gutsier player with more self-belief came though to her ninth Grand Slam title.

“She’s between a pit bull, a young Mike Tyson and an alligator, and that’s what it took for her to win tonight,” Richard said. “I just tell her to compete like hell, win or lose. Compete like Connors.”

Serena celebrates in a different way than Jimmy but has the same roar and love of the battle. Sure, she’ll say she likes to win her matches easy, but that’s not what created her legend. It’s how she gets in the trenches, grits her teeth and gets downright mean when the chips are down.

When she was huffing and puffing deep in the second set, her sweaty and sore back could have melted against the blue court. But after she won the two-hour, four-minute contest, fighting off four set points in the second set, she was downright ebullient, taking a page out of Venus’ celebration book and jumping up and down like a pogo stick.

“I’ve never known Serena to be very excited, only to be mean and arrogant, and if she doesn’t like what you’re saying, she might try to hit you with the ball, even when she was young,” Richard said. “She might have a soft side, but I’ve never seen it except toward me.”

That may be just a taskmaster’s view, because Serena can be downright charming. Just ask her significant other, the rapper, Common, who has been allegedly smitten with Serena for more than a year and attended the final. It’s just that on court, the bubbly part-time actress takes a dictator’s attitude.

Serena entered into the tournament pining for a major title in ‘08 and was by no means the clear favorite. She had to survive 10 set points against her sister in the quarters  (Venus’ first big choke job in memory), the red -hot Dinara Safina in the semis and then Jankovic, the fleet-footed backboard in the final. The Serbian, who spent the first week of the tournament complaining about injuries, illness and fitness, finally turned the mental corner in a three- set win over promising Danish teen Caroline Wozniaki in the fourth round and then out-thought Sybille Bammer and Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva to reach her first Slam final.

The two were facing off for the world No. 1 ranking and entered the match with a 3-3 head-to-head record. Closely matched, Serena would depend on her big serve, scalding returns and sure-handed net game to keep herself out of endless rallies with the spotlight-loving Serbian, an ambitious shotmaker who adores a big audience.

And Jankovic almost stole the evening, doing splits, smiling widely and engaging the crowd after spectacular winners.  But there’s a reason why Serena has a much more impressive resume than the 23-year-old - she knows how to compose herself on big points and stops messing around.

After the resourceful Jankovic broke to cut Serena’s lead to 5-4 in the first set, Serena bore down to break back. Serena knew that she had to attack Jankovic’s second serves if she was to avoid a marathon, where Jankovic could rally and punish her legs.

Gunning for her first Grand Slam title, Jankovic broke Serena and established a 5-3 lead. But that’s when Williams gritted her teeth.  She fought off three set points with a gorgeous backhand, a crisp overhead and then watched Jankovic push a backhand wide to hold at 5-4.

“I let it go,” Jankovic said. “I had it, a lot of chances. Second set I had a lot of set points and didn’t do the right things.”

Serena then threw down the gauntlet in a thrilling, no-holds-bared game that featured a fourth set point for the Serbian (where, incredibly, she double faulted) and six break points for Serena, which the American finally won with a searing forehand.

But the match wasn’t over there -- not by a long pull of Jankovic’s ponytail. Serena knew she had better close or she might be locked into a three-hour battle with a woman who doesn’t mind running marathons.

Serving again, Serena held for a 6-5 lead with a lunging volley. And with Jankovic serving the next game, she grabbed her second match point by the throat with a beautiful crosscourt backhand that sealed the deal.

“She has some tough matches and losses,” Richard said. “Her desire is unbelievable. This title meant more to her than any she’s ever won.”

It was Serena’s first Grand Slam since the ‘07 Aussie. Her ‘08 season had a few highlights, including titles in Bangalore, Miami, Charleston and the Olympic gold in doubles with Venus. But it also included losses to Jankovic in Australia, to Katarina Srebotnik in Paris, to Venus at Wimbledon and to Dementieva in Beijing. Serena hadn’t always committed to the tour grind, but she did this year and wanted to reap some benefits.

“I’ve been working so hard all year,” she said. “Sometimes I wake up at like 6 in the morning to go practice, and it’s too dark. I have to wait until it gets light. It’s just paying off. No one really, really knows the work an athlete puts in. It’s worth it. And then I felt like, ‘Gosh, I’ve been working the hardest. I should win.’”

Serena already can be called the greatest player of her generation and with this victory, she tied Seles with nine majors while standing three behind Billie Jean King. She will likely never catch Evert or Navratilova, who have 18, as she turned 27 at the end of September, and it’s increasingly rare to see a player past the age of 29 win Slam after Slam.

In a Slam year that featured four different winners -- the now injured Maria Sharapova (Australia), the recently injured Ana Ivanovic (Roland Garros), Venus and Serena, let alone the retirement of ‘07’s dominant No. 1, Justine Henin, no player has seized control of the tour and is unlikely to do so in the near future.

But don’t count Serena out in going around the block once more and taking titles at all the other Slams. She may be too much of a perfectionist for her father, but she’s a whole lot smarter than the kid who beat down Martina Hingis in New York in ‘99 and has a whole lot more variety in her game. Plus, she relishes the battles as much as any other woman out there.

“I want to get double digits,” Serena said. “I like that I’m at nine because I’m pushing for 10, and I feel I can do it. I obviously play well all the time in Australia, so that’s coming up soon. I have to win another French Open, and I love Wimbledon. I definitely had the game to do it. I love winning Grand Slams.”

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