Back
in her comfort zone on Centre Court, Serena Williams delivered an
overpowering statement: When her serve is clicking, she’s the woman to
beat at Wimbledon.
Putting aside her recent comments that
led to a couple of apologies and a brief spat with Maria Sharapova,
Williams looked every bit the five-time champion. She began her
Wimbledon title defense with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Mandy Minella of
Luxembourg.
‘’For me, it’s the greatest moment for a
tennis player, to walk out on Centre Court,’’ Williams said after her
first match at Wimbledon since winning the Olympic gold medal there last
year. ‘’That was such a great moment, too. So many great memories on
this court.’’
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic also opened
his campaign with a straight-sets victory, beating Florian Mayer of
Germany 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Mayer is a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist,
losing to Djokovic at that stage last year. But he was never in danger
of springing another stunner following Rafael Nadal’s first-round exit a
day earlier.
Djokovic took a 3-0 lead in the first
set and broke for a 6-5 lead in the second to take control. He served
out the match to love before saluting the Centre Court crowd with a fist
pump.
‘’It was a big pleasure again performing
here on Centre Court in front of the packed crowd,’’ Djokovic said.
‘’For the first round, it was tricky. … I think (Mayer’s) game is really
well suited for grass, so it took a lot of effort.’’
For Williams, this was a chance to put
the focus back on tennis following the verbal jousting with Sharapova
over their private lives – and comments about an Ohio rape case for
which she had to apologize – and she took full advantage.
As usual on grass, the top-ranked
Williams dominated with her hard serve, winning the first set without
dropping a point on her service game. Her main weapon let her down only
at the start of the second set, when Minella took a 2-0 lead after
Williams double-faulted on break point.
She was one point from going down 3-0
but then won 15 of the next 18 points to take a 4-2 lead, and broke
again to wrap up the victory.
‘’I feel like I was a little rusty for
some reason today,’’ Williams said. ‘’I don’t feel like I played my
best. I felt really upset when I lost my serve in the second set. With
that being said, I think Mandy played really well. I thought she was
really mixing up her shots, mixing up her game. It wasn’t an easy match
for me. I’m a little excited I was able to play a tough match and to get
through it.’’
Much of the pre-tournament talk was
about Williams and Sharapova, the two top players in the game who are on
opposite sides of the draw and can’t meet before the final.
‘’It hasn’t been a distraction. Like I
said, I’m just here to focus on the tennis,’’ Williams said. ‘’I’m just
here to play Wimbledon. It’s the premier tournament in the world, of the
year, so that’s what’s most important. … We’re playing on opposite
days, so we don’t really see each other.’’
0 comments:
Post a Comment