In the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Monday, ninth seed Serena Williams faced the weekend’s Budapest runner-up Elena Vesnina and routinely eliminated her with a 6-3 6-1 victory which included 14 aces and 40 winners to her opponent’s one ace and four winners.
Vesnina won just three points on Serena’s first serve and even on Serena’s second serve the performance was not better, just four points. Moreover, she hit six doubles faults and had a second serve winning percentage of just 26%.
Whether the blue clay is “ridiculous” or not, as Serena called the Madrid’s new surface, the American experienced no troubles in her first match at the tournament. Most impressively, leading 4-1 in the second set she hit four aces to win the game! Williams is now 8-0 on clay in 2012.
In the second round Serena will face another Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova are possible later opponents. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Wow!
I watched the match … and it was like OMG serena is unstoppable!!!! she is serving great, moving great, fighting great… so i think if she can continu with this form she will be the one to watch 🙂 as for venus she herself said that she is in a learning period so let give her a little bit of time maybe she can do better and deal more and more with the new conditions caused by the autoimmune disease…
Where are the results of the more exciting 1st round matches such as Makarova over Voskonoeva and Safarova over the recent champ, Kanepi?
How about reporting on the more important 2nd round wins of Kerber over Venus Williams and Stosur over McHale?
I’d rather read about matches of players who are battling for wins every week rather than about a person who disdains tennis and only plays the majors and a few other tournaments each year.
John, initially I reported only the first half of the day and I was very late with the second half. I’d like to be able to cover everything but I’m not.
JohnnyB,
Whether you agree or not, Serena is by far and away one of the most relevant tennis players of all time and easily so in her generation. Her wins, losses, etc will always be reported on because she has earned that respect via her record in the sport and personal narrative. Whether she likes or dislikes tennis does not take away to her importance to the sport. This post is part of the territory of news coverage allocated for a 13 time Grand Slam champion. Your opinion over her does not justify not reporting on her.
BTW, agree Kerber over Venus and Safarova over Kanepi are report worthy, but Stosur over McHale? Not so much other than the fact it took Stosur that long to close it out