Making her 90th Grand Slam appearance, an Open Era record, Venus Williams edged Mihaela Buzarnescu 7-5 4-6 6-3 on Court No.3 and advanced to the second round of Wimbledon.
Venus Williams, 41 years young, fights through an edgy final service game to defeat Mihaela Buzarnescu 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in the first round of Wimbledon
Hats off. Ons Jabeur next#getty pic.twitter.com/tmDPVzy0iW
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) June 29, 2021
Having saved five break points earlier in the first set, Williams prevented a tiebreak and recorded the first break of the match in the 12th game. Buzarnescu opened the second set with a 2-0 lead and hung on to it to take the match to a decider, as Williams converted none of her three break points.
The 41-year-old Williams was racing through the third set and served for the match at 5-1, but Buzarnescu saved one match point, broke the five-time Wimbledon champion and then produced a love hold to switch the momentum. At 5-3 Williams converted her third match point in a tight game that could have gone either way.
Williams’ second-round opponent will be Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, who has recently won her maiden WTA title at the Viking Classic Birmingham.
Even though Williams’ clothing brand EleVen announced that she would wear the iridescent Glow Up collection in London, the American played it safe and showed up in a pure white outfit consisting of the EleVen Love to Love Top, a short-sleeve ribbed construction with side slits, an asymmetric wrap design skirt, and a basic white visor.
NEWSFLASH💥
Buzarnescu seems to have embroidered her Lotto dress with cute little pearls pic.twitter.com/Trhh6tgYCo
— Pog’s Tennis Channel (@FoQPTennis) June 29, 2021
Buzarnescu’s classic Lotto racerback tank and skirt ensemble features an unexpected detail: sewn-in pearls on the right side of the tank.
OK Marija, just saw the end of the Kerber/Stojanovic match. The Serbian does the cupping therapy on her right shoulder. You could see the marks plain as day, because they look like circular bruises to me. Supposed to increase the circulation and separates the fascia in the area? Do you know why she does this? The Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps used to do this. https://www.newsweek.com/michael-phelps-cupping-science-rio-olympics-alex-naddour-sports-swimming-488910
BTW, congratulations to Venus. She surely loves the grass of Wimbledon!
I saw this match, Venus looked out of shape, felt like she was forcing herself, forcing her body to move, to play this physical single match, clearly she is in no shape to compete in a high level against young guns. Yes she won the match against Buzarnescu, but to be fair Buzarnescu is not really an intimidating opponent.
I think she needs to retire her single career and just focus on her doubles, take the route from Hingis and Navratilova, they had massive success in doubles after they retired from single career.
I bet alot of players, both wta and atp will line up to be Venus’s doubles partner.
Jim, I don’t know much about it except for the fact that it is a natural method for health improvement. I’ve never tried it, but I’ve seen people practicing it in Serbia (I think some Russian doctor is doing it here). I suppose it is effective, I don’t know.