By Erik Gudris | Monday, July 2, 2018
Serena Williams battled the wind and a testy opponent to win her first match in two years at Wimbledon.
Photo Credit: Camera Sport
A lot has changed for seven time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams since last playing, and winning the title, at Wimbledon two years ago. She got married and had a baby daughter.
And though she is now addressed as “Mrs. Williams” while on court, Serena’s winning tradition continued at the All-England Club on opening day.
But it wasn’t easy.
The 25th seeded Williams certainly needed to rely on her vast experience to weather not only the conditions, her opponent Arantxa Rus, but also her own expectations about her playing level right now.
At times throughout the match, Williams exhorted herself after points or would often yell in agony when certain shots didn’t go as planned.
“I feel like towards the end I was just trying to be more calm and I want to do so well that some times it works against you sometimes. I feel like I was overly anxious and over trying and overdoing it. But towards the end I was more calm and making my shots just playing a more serene, ha, game and I felt like it worked out,” Williams said afterwards.
Very breezy conditions on Court No. 1 bothered both players right from the start. Though Williams jumped out to an early lead, errors from the former World No. 1’s racquet dented her cause. Williams soon found herself tied at 3-all.
“I havent played in wind in a really long time. So I’m not used to that yet. And it was really windy for me today. Something I would normally be ok with, so, it’s all just kinda getting back to the hang of things and used to different circumstances. At the time I wasn’t happy, but looking back I was glad I had the wind so in the future I will be able to play a little bit better.”
Rus, in her first ever meeting against Williams, handled the moment well. Rus mixed up her shots and did not let Williams daunting presence overwhelm her. With Williams struggling to find any momentum, it looked like Rus just might take the opening set.
But Rus, overplayed her hand, while trying to serve herself into a tiebreak.
Williams outlasted Rus in a testing, long rally to earn two set points. Rus saved the first with a good serve. But she didn’t handle the second one as well. Rus, attempting to hit behind Williams in a rally, sent the ball long instead.
With that, Williams raised her arms in celebration on taking the set.
It didn’t get any easier for Williams though in the second set. Williams again battled herself as well as the elements as more inopportune errors crept into her game. Those errors, and Rus not backing down, allowed the current World No. 105 to take a 3-1 lead.
Yet Williams, has she has so often, imposed her will onto the match. Even if her own game wasn’t firing on all cylinders, Serena wasn’t about to let that stop her from allowing her opponent to take this into a third set.
Williams pulled to 3-all, basically asking Rus to step up her own game in response. Rus did, but not well enough as she soon found herself facing another break point. Rus dumped a low volley into the net thus allowing Williams to serve for the match.
Williams had to work hard in the final game as Rus fought off five match points, several with hard hit return winners. Finally, Williams came through on her sixth match point.
Williams, didn’t look happy or even relieved to be through the match. But that’s likely because Williams knows she can play way better to put herself in position for perhaps yet another Wimbledon title.