NEW YORK (AP) – In danger of her first outing at the U.S. Open since her debut 22 years ago, Serena Williams has faced Sloane Stephens and took over.
Williams emerged from the third-round bout between two American champion defenders at Flushing Meadows (he won six of his 23 singles Grand Slam titles upright) with a 2-6, 6-2, 6 victory.-2 on Stephens’ 2017 song list on Saturday.
Williams’ 3-year-old daughter Olympia then wore a mask and greeted Mom as she sat on her father’s lap in the front row.In the locker room, Williams greeted him.
“I hope, ” said Williams, “who saw her fight.”
Williams did, as he does, with his most productive service in the game, achieving 12 aces of up to 122 mph and an ability to recalibrate his shots to the ground that they were so bad at first and so good in length.
Williams has amassed 10 of the last 12 games by raising his level, of course, but helped Stephens move from betting almost perfectly to missing more and more.After mistakes, Stephens looked at his coach, Kamau Murray, or hit his right thigh with his palm was so strong that he echoed an almost empty Arthur Ashe stadium.
“In that first set, I don’t think he made any mistakes, honestly. He played so fair. I said, ‘I don’t need to lose in straight sets,” said Williams, whose only career loss at the US Open before. the fourth circular came in third place in opposition to Irina Spirlea in 1998 at the age of 16.
Williams, who will be 39 in three weeks, said he said Saturday: “Okay, Serena, play a game.Get a game.”
Of course, there was no fan, banned because of the coronavirus pandemic, so it all looked more like the feeling of a workout than a high-risk competition on a Grand Slam stage.
There were players to consider, adding the fifteenth seed Maria Sakkari, who drank orange juice and had lunch on the balcony of his lineup.Sakkari had a keer interest: he faces Williams for a place in the quarter-finals.
It’s a rematch of his assembly won last month through Sakkari in the Western
“You know, Serena is Serena,” Sakkari said after advancing the previous Saturday by beating American Amanda Anisimova, 19, 6-3, 6-1.”You have to locate the tennis. Otherwise, there is no possibility of opposing it.
Stephens did that even first thing on Saturday.
She played tennis patiently, waiting for the right time, creating long and confusing problems that ended with Williams blinking first.
After an exchange of 15 in the first set that culminated in a backhand that flew off, Williams looked at the strings on his racket and hit them with his left palm.
Stephens took the lead early, taking a 2-1 lead when Williams spent 30 consecutive players with back-to-back backstrokes that failed the mark.
Quickly, this set belonged to Stephens, who fell in love when the four tracks ended Williams’ mistakes.In total, Williams made thirteen direct mistakes on set.Stephens? Only five.
The end of this set was greeted with widespread silence, not even the soundtrack awkwardly broadcast other matches to simulate ambient noise.
From 2 to everything in the second, Williams nevertheless made forays, amassed a break point and then broke for the first time when Stephens missed a forehand, as part of a stretch in which Williams scored 12 out of 15 points.
She’s on her way.
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