Williams wins after ‘rusty’ first blowout
Serena Williams admitted she was rusty in her match against Pauline Parmentier at the ASB Classic in Auckland yesterday.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner beat the French woman 6-3 6-4 in 75 minutes on Centre Court and not surprisingly, since it was her first match since last year’s US Open, it was a patchy performance.
She lost the first two games of the match and only occasionally was she able to completely dominate her opponent.
‘‘I was OK, you always feel rusty going out there for your first match,’’ Williams said.
‘‘I definitely felt that rust, but mentally I knew how to get it back and get in there.’’
Williams seemed bothered by the swirling wind and said it was the first time she had experienced this while in New Zealand, however she went back to the basics of how to play in those conditions.
‘‘It was so windy out there,’’ she said.
‘‘But I guess in the wind you really have to be ready to move your feet, so I went to what my coach told me and I was like ‘you know how to play in the wind, you’ve done it many times before,’ so I just tried to adjust to it.
‘‘It’s still not my favourite conditions, but it seems like this tournament is windy so I have to get used to it.’’
Before the match, Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou said dealing with the constant pressure of being one of the best players of all time is something she has to constantly deal with, but that it’s a good position to be in.
‘‘I’ve had to learn to deal with it, because usually it’s bigger news for me to lose,’’ she said.
‘‘So that’s how it’s become. I’ve been in different positions in my life and I know he was saying that’s a better position to be in, but people don’t understand the stress that comes with it.
‘‘The expectation is incredible and there are very few people, if any, that go through that on a daily basis. It’s something I feel like I’m dealing with better over the last few months and I hope to be able to deal with it better this year.’’
Williams at the age of 35 isn’t done with winning Grand Slams, which is why she’s come to Auckland, to be in the best shape possible for the Australian Open.
‘‘Unfortunately I have the highest of goals and obviously that involves winning Grand Slams and that’s all,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s basically all I want to do, but you have to win tournaments like this, or do well in them, to win Grand Slams, so these events really count.’’
She had kept a low profile in New Zealand since arriving on Friday, but on the weekend went to Waiheke Island to relax and take in the sights.
‘‘I went to the beach in a helicopter and it was amazing, so beautiful,’’ she said.
‘‘As an American you only see the beautiful landscape in New Zealand on photos and you never really think you’re going to experience it.
‘‘I know Venus was insistent that I tried New Zealand, that they’d love to have you and you’d love it there.
‘‘I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to see some of the beautiful stuff in the helicopter and the beach was so awesome. I wanted to play the the sheep, but I’m not sure if they’re wild or domestic!’’
In other matches on Centre Court, it was a disappointing result for New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic, who lost 6-1 6-2 to Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia.
Erakovic never really got going in a match that lasted 69 minutes.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka completed her match against Annika Beck from Germany, which was carried over from Monday, winning it 6-2 6-4.
Crowd favourite Caroline Wozniacki, a former world No 1, cruised to a 6-1 6-0 win over American Nicole Gibbs in her firstround match.