PARIS, MAY 26 – You can look at Serena Williams near 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 loss to Klara Zakapalova in two ways: one, that she’s rusty, her sore knee hurts and she’s super vulnerable; and two, that because she’s rusty, she had to scratch through the match and being pushed early on at the Slam is part of her history, and her very successful history at that.
” I think I just played horrendous, and I think I was a little nervous because I hadn’t won a match on clay all year,” she said. “I was just desperate for a win, and I think it pretty much showed in my game.
She’s looked shaky plenty of times in the first week of Slams and gone on to win titles. That has never happened in Paris, as in 2002, she was nails the whole way through, but it’s occurred in Melbourne and New York and she came through with flying colors.
Yes, her feet were stuck in the dirt way too much, her backhand crosscourt was about as fragile as it’s ever been and she could have served with much more ambition, but she did what she had to when she needed to, mostly smoke untouchable returns off powder-puff serves.
“Mostly I played really horrible today,” said Serena, who finished with 35 winners and 35 unforced errors. “I didn’t move. I just played junior tennis or even worse, and, you know, it just showed. It was what it was.”
After she won the Australian Open, Serena said that her main goal the rest of the year was to win her second Roland Garros title. She denied making that statement on Tuesday, but here’s what she said on a hot night in Melbourne.
“I know I can do Wimbledon, but the key is the French,” Serena said. “Last year I put way too much pressure on myself and I was tight and over-hit. But if I’m fit and more positive, I can do it. But for whatever reason, even though I own an apartment there, the French don’t clap for me. I’m thinking I have a good chance to win Paris, not the calendar year Grand Slam, but Paris and then the next Grand Slam and the next Grand Slam and the next Grand Slam…”
But times have changed since then. She won a classic three setter over Venus in the Miami semis and then was destroyed by Victoria Azarenka in the final. Her clay season became a whitewash after she flew to Marbella the day after Miami and fell to none other than Zakapalova. Her knee began to ache and she couldn’t pull herself together, going o for the dirt until Tuesday.
“Well, I feel like I’ve been in an uphill battle, and I feel like it hasn’t been easy. I’m just fighting through it, and, I can’t give up, so I’m just going to do the best that I can and go with it.”
Serena’s draw looks very decent until the quarters: a match against Virginia Ruano Pascual (who of course beat Nicole Vaidisova), maybe Viktoriya Kutuzova or Peng Shuai, then possibly Alexandra Wozniak or maybe, just maybe Alexa Glatch. The quarters would likely bring Svetlana Kuznetsova, unless Aga Radwanska rediscovers her form.
So for all the angst of her first Tuesday, there isn’t that much to be concerned about yet, unless her bum knee completely gives out, but if it’s so bad, why didn’t she pull out of the doubles? Because while it’s not perfect, it’s not that bad.
“My leg felt pretty good, actually,” she said. “Definitely more confident in moving it, and it definitely felt much better than the past few weeks.”
Now, all Serena needs to feel a little love from the crowd. She got very little against Zakapalova on Suzanne Lenglen, where’s she experienced heartache and triumph.
“It was what it was,” she said with a sad face. “They don’t really pull for me a lot here. That’s fine.”
from TennisReporters.net
