Razzano Earns 'Beautiful Victory' Against Williams in Paris

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Razzano Earns 'Beautiful Victory' Against Williams in Paris

By Erik Gudris

Photo Credit: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/GettyImages

(May 29th, 2012) Some prognosticators before the start of this year's French Open thought that the only person who could stop Serena Williams from winning her second title in Paris was Serena Williams herself. That almost came true today in Williams's opening round match against France's Virginie Razzano who ended up being the crucial part of the equation in one of the most dramatic and bizarre matches played in some time in Roland Garros.

Williams and Razzano, though they had never played each other before, each came into the match with emotional undercurrents running through them both. For Williams, it was first time back in Paris since losing to Sam Stosur in 2010 and having not played last year due to injury. For Razzano, it had only been just over a year since she had lost her fiancé and coach Stéphane Vidal who died unexpectedly of a brain tumor.

The nervy tone of the match started straight away as Razzano broke Williams to open the match. Razzano held onto her break advantage until Williams managed to pull even at 4-all and then held serve for 5-4. Feeling the pressure of the moment of playing on Philip Chatrier court, Razzano double faulted on set point to give Williams the set 6-4.

But Razzano stayed with Williams in the second set as the former champion played erratic tennis and could never hit through the tenacious Razzano who served a healthy 66% for the set. At 30-all, 3-all, Razzano missed an easy backhand volley that would have given her break point that allowed Williams to eventually hold serve for 4-3. Williams missed on her own break point chances in the next game and eventually the set wound itself into a tiebreak.

Williams jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker on the strength of several winners and with help from nervy errors from Razzano. But though Williams was expected to wrap up the match, errors off of Williams's racquet allowed Razzano to level at 5-all. When Razzano stormed the net up a set point at 6-5 only to see Williams net her attempted pass, the unthinkable was now reality as a third set dawned to the delight of the Parisian crowd on hand.

On the changeover, Williams looked stunned and shed a few tears while sitting in her chair, perhaps on thinking that her dream of winning Paris once again had now turned into a nightmare. She was so overcome with tension that she could barely win points as the third set got underway.

Razzano stormed out to an improbable 5-0 lead but once again the match took another dramatic turn as Razzano, suffering from a mixture of cramps and an apparent calf issue, began to falter. Williams held serve for 1-5 and then, with the help of a hindrance call made by umpire Eva Asderaki on Razzano for crying out in pain during a point, Williams broke for 2-5.

Holding again for 3-5, Williams forced Razzano to serve for the match again. The ninth game became its own mini-match as momentum swung in favor of both women. Fighting though pain and nerves, Razzano would find herself with multiple match points only to overhit several times to send it back to Deuce. Williams herself would set up break point opportunities, but she too would overhit at the wrong time. Finally on Razzano's eighth match point once again set up by an error from Williams, Razzano managed to get her serve in and engage Williams in a rally that ended when Williams sent her shot just long, ending the over three hour match at just past nine o'clock Paris time 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.

The loss for Williams marks her earliest exit ever from a Grand Slam event and her first loss ever in the first round of a Major. Her previous earliest exit was in the second round of Melbourne to her older sister Venus Williams back in 1998.

"I had to dig deep against a great champion and you could see until the end that she gave away nothing," said a delighted Razzano afterwards. "I had to go and get the victory. I had to be mentally strong, and I gave my everything. It's the most beautiful victory in my career."

"I'm disappointed, but that's life, things could be worse," said Williams in her press conference. "I've been through so much in my life. I'm not sitting here happy. I've gotta figure out what I did wrong and not do it again. I fought until the end."

Williams will remain in the tournament as she is still scheduled to play in the mixed doubles event with Bob Bryan. As for Razzano, who has now won five of her last seven matches against opponents ranked in the top 5 since 2009, she will next meet Aranxta Rus in the second round.