Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A subdued Serena Williams moves into second round of U.S. Open

Until she had her on-court interview, Serena Williams looked unusually detached this evening in Flushing Meadows. According to ESPN commentator Pam Shriver, the "Williams camp" was not pleased with the schedule; Williams was the last woman (along with her opponent, of course) to play her first round match.

It took the 28th seed only 56 minutes to defeat Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-1. She hit 22 winners and made ten unforced errors.

Francesca Schiavone, the 7th seed, quietly advanced when she defeated Galina Voskoboeva. Also advancing were world number 1 Caroline Wozniacki, 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and New Haven runner-up Petra Cetkovska. Mona Barthel of Germany upset 32nd seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, and Dallas runner-up Aravane Rezai lost to 26th seed Flavia Pennetta.

Jamie Hampton "retired" with only a few points left to play in her match: Hampton passed out on the court because of heat and dehydration. Her opponent, Elena Baltacha, reports that Hampton made a good recovery.

3 comments:

Todd Spiker said...

Serena should send some sort of thank-you gift to Golubev, because if not for his inability to hold lead after lead after lead she might not have gotten on court until almost midnight. Check that, he'd probably just absent-mindedly leave the gift, three-quarters opened before he lost interest in the endeavor, sitting on the edge of the table in his hotel room. Serena would be smart to save her money.

Dave from Tennis DVDs said...

Everyone should know by now that Serena thinks the world revolves around her.

Diane said...

She's wrong; it revolves around Henin :)