Slow-starting Williams storms back to top upstart
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND • As has become customary for Serena Williams of late, she got off to a rocky start.
In her first-round match at Wimbledon on Monday, Williams dropped three of the first four games. She slipped and nearly did the splits, tumbling to the turf. She was warned for using foul language.
And, as has also become customary for Williams, she wound up with a victory.
The No. 1-seeded Williams extended her pursuit of a fourth consecutive major title and her bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam, too, by taking 11 of the last 13 games to beat 113thranked qualifier Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 6-1. Williams has won her past 22 Grand Slam matches.
“There are a lot of expectations on her shoulders at the moment,” said Williams’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. “It took her maybe six games to get going. And then there was no match.”
Gasparyan came in 0-3 in tour-level matches and was making her Wimbledon maindraw debut. “When I (saw) her before match,” Gasparyan said, “I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I’m playing Serena.’ ”
Yet the 20-year-old Russian played unafraid at the outset, and her one-handed backhand withstood Williams’ power for about a half-hour. Then, Gasparyan explained, Williams began playing “unbelievable,” taking five straight games and 22 of 29 points in one stretch.
It was, otherwise, a mostly routine Day 1 for the biggest names on the schedule. Defending champion Novak Djokovic — and the player he lost to in the French Open final this month, No. 4 Stan Wawrinka — won in straight sets. So did 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and former No. 1-ranked women, Victoria Azarenka and Ana Ivanovic.