"Even though we're often looked upon as eccentric island people who like to eat shark at times and believe in Thor and Odin, essentially we are a very modern Scandinavian country."Food and Fun runs from 16 to 20 February, ; Vox, ; Blue Lagoon, ; Apotek, ; Discover the World offers three-night breaks in Reykjavik for two from £344 on Icelandair. Every spring the sheep are let loose to roam around the mountains eating berries, moss and herbs. Because Iceland is powered by geothermal energy, there is virtually no pollution so their diet is fresh and entirely organic. Come autumn, the farmers simply go up the mountains, round up the flock and bring it down. "Our lamb stock has never been mixed, it's exactly the same as the Vikings brought with them," says Hall They also have a Heidi-like attitude to rearing Antibiotics, hormones and pesticides are all banned. She took advantage when she had the opportunity and kept going." The ability to keep going figures large in the Williams lexicon.
"I never, ever think that I have to give up, even in the most dire situations," she said. Having come on court with all the sponsors' designer accessories, the discardable leggings and dangly earrings, it seemed at first that Serena had mislaid only one thing, her game, as she served at half-pace and was twice broken.The injury, she revealed, happened on the very first point. "I reached for a backhand and I think it tweaked my back out. For the next few games I was out of it."So the trainer was summoned and the spectators prepared for an early termination to the occasion. But the woman who won this title two years ago and missed the tournament because of injury in both 2002 and 2004 returned with the self-declared intention of "doing a little better here."And so it came to pass. As she tested the condition of her back, Serena still played with some caution, opting not to attempt full lift-off on the serve or her usual side-to-side lunges.
An indication of improvement was that she held a first break point on the Davenport delivery at 1-4, but Lindsay marched confidently to the capture of that opening set, with a second Australian Open crown to go with the one she won in 2000 appearing inevitable.What most people considered the key moment occurred at 2-2 in the second set when, in a tense dozen minutes, Williams fought off six break points in a game which went to deuce eight times. "I just did not want to lose that particular game," said Serena "I was serving so many balls my arm was hurting. I said, 'I don't care if my arm falls off, I'm not going to lose this game'. I knew it was pivotal."For Davenport, however, that was not the back-breaker. It happened, as far as she was concerned, three games later when, in what she described as "a horrible lapse", she squandered a 40-love advantage and, having offered Serena only her second break point, self-destructed with a weak double-fault. That put Lindsay on the slide at 3-5 and, in the unlikely event that she needed it, blew a gale of extra resolve into Serena's sails.From then on the aces went thundering in, the love games piled up and the Davenport double-faults mounted. Two more aces, taking her total to 12, sent Serena surging to championship point and it was all over, even including the long time-out for treatment, in less than an hour and a half.After being handed the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy by Margaret Court, who has won it more times than anyone else, the champion reflected on the three match points she had saved against Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals and summed up an incredible self-belief "I just did it Like Nike say, 'Just do it'.".
