VENUS AVOIDS A SLIP-UP

VENUS WILLIAMS had to get a grip of her stance and then her match to avoid slipping out at the first round a year on from making the Wimbledon final. Twice in losing the opening set Williams fell badly, victim of the fresh turf that tends to be tricky when the tournament starts. But the 38-year-old regained her sure-footedness as well as her single-mindedness to beat Johanna Larsson 6-7, 6-2, 6-1. At times Williams reached a level of tennis that made a mockery of her age and left you thinking that she is capable of once again going deep. ‘I’d like to take it a step further,’ said the five-time champion. Here last year she reached the final — only to come up against an inspired Garbine Muguruza — but having gone out in first rounds of both Australian and French Opens in 2018, a similar fate appeared plausible when Larsson showed pluck to take the first set tie-breaker 7-3. It was a set that took an hour to complete and saw Williams twice slip painfully, but she came back and broke Larsson at will.