NEW YORK (AP) Serena Williams was flustered when called for taking too long between points, tossed the racket away after letting slip an advantage and surprisingly meekly finished with a 5-7, 7-6 (5) , 6-1 defeat to Maria Sakkari at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday night.
tennis resumed amid the coronavirus pandemic after a hiatus of nearly six months – and all five have gone three sets. She is 3-2 in that stretch." data-reactid="20">This was Williams’ fifth game since professional tennis resumed amid the coronavirus pandemic after a nearly six-month hiatus – and all five have gone in three sets. She is 3-2 in that stretch.
The result against No. 13 seeded Sakkari, and particularly the way the match ended, was hardly promising for Williams as the start of the US Open approached next week.
The Western & Southern Open is usually held in Ohio, but this year it was moved to the US Open site in Flushing Meadows to create an audience-less “bubble” of two events during the pandemic.
Williams was apparently in control early, serving for the first set at 5-3, 30-0, as things began to unravel. She missed two backhands in a row, then put a forehand into the net to set a breaking point and approached the grandstand holding her towel at the back of the pitch (ball players normally handle towels for players, but not during COVID-19).
That’s when the referee president Aurelie Tourte called a time violation. In the next point, Williams sailed a long forehand to be broken.
On the next step, the 23-time Grand Slam champion argued with Tourte, saying, “I mean, I’m getting my towels. That’s not fair. You should tell me on the sidelines next time if I need to play faster. Believe me, I do. I’ll do. … You didn’t even give me a warning. “
As Williams eventually took that set, they again lost a 5-3 lead in the second, plus a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker. When she sat down after the second set, the 38-year-old American threw the racket over her shoulders like a clerk might throw a crumpled piece of paper at a garbage can.
Williams came out flat in the third set, as if she preferred to be elsewhere. He committed a double fault four times in the second game, including Sakkari’s eighth chance, leading to 2-0 and that was pretty much that.
tennis looked much better, in a 6-2, 6-4 victory over unseeded American Tennys Sandgren that improved the No. 1-ranked man to 20-0 in 2020." data-reactid="32">Hours earlier, Novak Djokovic’s neck felt much better, and his tennis looked much better, in a 6-2, 6-4 win against American Tennys Sandgren who improved the ranked No. 1 to 20-0. in 2020.
“Actually, I am pleasantly surprised by the way I recovered and felt today – only overall, physically, but also with the neck, in particular, because it was a bit worrying,” said Djokovic, who will look at the his 18th Grand Slam title at the US Open. “Going back four, five days, I fought a lot.”
Djokovic was groomed by a coach and played slowly in his opening match on Monday, but he was at his best from the start against Sandgren and saved all four break points he faced.
Djokovic will face Jan-Lennard Struff, 34th classified in the quarter-finals. The other quarter-final in the top half of the draw will be defending champion Daniil Medvedev against seed no. 8 Roberto Bautista Agut.
Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 American who is ranked 39th, delivered 19 aces and knocked out 2019 US Open semifinalist Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (4). Opelka later meets seed number 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, whose 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) win over number 16 John Isner was interrupted by a rain delay of almost 1 and a half hours late in the first set.
Time was also cut short by three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray 6-2, 6-2 against 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic, who has played all 29 games he has served in the tournament so far.
“It was poor. He didn’t play well. It hasn’t been a good day, “said Murray, who hasn’t competed since November due to a pelvic injury and is playing on a metal hip after two operations on that joint.” The positives are that I’ve got three games. . Physically, I stopped well. “
The women’s quarter-finals at the start of the day were two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka against Anett Kontaveit, former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka against Ons Jabeur and 83rd-placed American qualifier Jessica Pegula against number 14 Elise Mertens.
The storm warning confuses Serena Williams in a mild 3-set loss that originally appeared on NBCSports.com
