We’ve heard of the Serena Slam.
This was the Serena shock.
Serena, the favorite to win the French Open, was in control – total control – against an aging veteran who had barely played this year; who had just two wins this year and is most known for the poignant loss of your young fiance just over a year ago.
As Williams cruised (she won the first set 6-4 and was up 5-1 in the second set tie-break) clearly the biggest Williams story of the day would be the pregnancy of Serena’s 39-year old stepmother Lakeisha. Finally, the many nightmares Serena suffered at Roland Garros would be erased. At 5-2 in the second set tie-break, just two points from victory, Serena stopped play on a loopy forehand from her foe.
She shouldn’t have.
When the chair umpire, (the infamous Eva Asderaki who was in the chair last September when Serena suffered another U.S. Open meltdown due to a hindrance call) the ball was called in.
On such little matters many a match has turned and after that came a deluge as Williams suffered one inexplicable error after another. Forehand long, forehand wide, backhand into the net, Serena’s wheels came off. What was supposed to be just another first round win for Serena, who incredibly had won all 46 of the first round matches in majors that she has played, suddenly took on a different tone. Razzano, 29, won six straight points to collect the second set tie-break 7-5, evened the match at a set apiece.
No worries thought American fans, Serena had been a force on clay this Spring at the Fed Cup, in Charleston where she destroyed Caroline Wozniacki and in Madrid where she demolished her arch rival Maria Sharapova.
On a 17-match win streak, surely the mighty Serena would extend her winning ways. But after the tie-break loss Serena seemed to weep and Razzano, in an eerie pre-dusk light and backed by a throaty home crowd, kept rolling. Yes, she was hobbled by a bum leg. Yes, she had a lowly 111 ranking. Yes, she had lost in the first round of Roland Garros for the past two years. But she seemed like she was in a dream and she played like a dream.
Keeping Williams off base with deep groundies, Razzano broke again and again. The French fans screamed. The Williams camp was glum and sullen. How could this happen to the great and good diva? Serena was down 5-0 and on the brink.
But, there is reason she is said to be the toughest battler in woman’s sports. And the power lady grit her teeth, ran her wounded opponent from side to side and fought back from a very scary precipice, winning three straight games to come within reach of getting the deciding set back on serve.
Then came a game for the ages. Tension, courage, bravery, choking, double faults, hindrance calls, momentum swings, shooting pain and shooting errors – has tennis ever seen a more dramatic first round game? Razzano had a match point, but double faulted. She was down a break point, then hit an ace. Serena, (who according to Nick Lestor, “Is tough as old boots,”) showed her “fire in the belly” as she went for the lines and wrong-footed her foe. Seven times she saved match-points. But also she slipped. She slid. And time and again she misfired and failed to take advantage of the five break-points tennis sages thought she would surely convert.
Finally Razzano, on her eighth match point watched as a Williams backhand flew just a smidgen long. After a titanic 23-minute game with 13 deuce points that will be remembered forever, the woman who just over a year ago lost her fiance after his nine-year battle with a cancerous tumo6r, won a match worthy of any tournament, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Just after her loss, Williams spoke tersely of Razzano’s off-court travail. “I know of her story and her husband,” she told a French reporter. “We all have stories … I almost died and Venus is struggling herself. So, you know, it’s life. It just depends on how you deal with it. She obviously is dealing with it really well.
Serena knows about coping. Few in sports have had to deal with more: triumph, loss, race, body type, injury, depression, love gone wrong, the murder of her step-sister and simple survival. Now Serena has to deal what many consider to be her worst loss of her career. Williams began her press conference with a certain sober/steady analysis.
“I just started making a lot of errors,” she said. “The whole match, I just didn’t play at all the way I have been practicing … I just made, I don’t know how many errors … I haven’t been playing like that in the past.
… I kept going for my shots which always works for me. It didn’t work out today …I definitely was nervous … There’s no excuse maybe.”
Serena said she didn’t feel the match slipping away, but admitted she just “couldn’t get a ball in play. When I did, I just felt like I was hitting late and how can you hit late on a clay court? It was kind of odd.”
As for the odd last game, Serena said she thought, “whatever you do, don’t get it back to deuce … But that didn’t work. I just was thinking, okay, if I could break here, then we’ll be back on serve … It is disappointing. But it’s life. Things could be a lot worse. I haven’t had the easiest past six months. Nothing I can’t deal with.”
Asked to put it all in perspective, she said, “You know, I’ve been through so much in my life, and …I’m not happy, by no means. I just always think things can be worse.” And with that, Serena began to choke up. Holding back the tears, she walked out of the interview room, a champion in sorrow, her Roland Garros in tatters.
As for Razzono, the French woman spoke of her courage and her “pure happiness.” She said, Serena “was playing with her mind. She was playing with her understanding of the game. I knew I had to really fight until the end.”
As for the trials of life and sport and the loss of her fiance, Razzano said, “Honestly, the past is the past. I think now I did my mourning. I feel good today. It took time. I also worked with someone who helped me making progress and helped me start something else, something new. I felt I was ready to go ahead and live my life professionally and personally … So is it destiny? Is it fate? I don’t know. I wanted to win that match. I wanted to give myself the chance of winning it. I went as far as I could, and I think I won it as a champion.”
