Sizzling start
Serena wins as temperatures soar
Serena Williams (US) bt Arantxa Rus (Hol) 7-5, 6-3
As Serena Williams began her 18th Wimbledon campaign yesterday, it was hard to say which was her biggest asset: the 115mph serve, or the ability to make her opponents’ blood run cold.
Williams looked uncomfortable at times against Arantxa Rus, a Dutchwoman ranked No105 in the world. The wind was swirling violently around No1 Court, and her stuttering footwork left her struggling to time the ball.
But whenever things became sticky, Williams turned up the volume. She does not grunt so much as roar, like the alpha female in a pride of lions. At one point late in the first set, she accompanied a forehand volley with such a shout that the BBC commentator Martina Navratilova could not help chuckling.
“That was the loudest volley I’ve ever heard,” said Navratilova, pointing out that there is no great physical effort involved in the short punch of a volley swing. “That’s imposing herself on her opponent. It’s intimidation big time.”
There is something territorial about the way that Williams occupies these 13-and-a-half acres. Having spent the weekend hanging out with Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, she can justly claim to be the queen of Wimbledon.
For the last time anyone beat her here, you have to go back to the third round of 2014, when Alize Cornet staged an unlikely ambush on this same No1 Court. Since then, Williams has clocked up 15 straight wins in a sequence that includes two titles and a tournament missed because she was in the final trimester of pregnancy.
After such a lengthy absence, she remains short of peak form. But Rus, an athletic left-hander who scrambled well out of the corners, was never going to be allowed to interrupt her campaign before it has gathered momentum. “I don’t think I was at my best today,” Williams said after her 7-5, 6-3 victory. “But hopefully I’ll be able to get there.”
This is where those blood-curdling cries came in. We heard them for the first time in Paris five weeks ago, when Williams was a set and a break down to the unassuming Ashleigh Barty.
Yesterday, Williams tried to get after Rus in the same way. When she forced an error to bring up 4030 in the 11th game, she clenched her fist in front of her face. But rather than looking to her box, she stared straight up the court at her opponent. As Navratilova pointed out: “That’s when you know she really wants it, when she starts getting noisy like that.”
To her credit, Rus did not flinch, remaining locked in her own bubble of concentration. But the display roused Williams, who found her most convincing strokeplay at the business end of both sets.
This was her 87th victory at Wimbledon, placing her fourth in the all-time standings behind Navratilova, Chris Evert and her sister Venus, and the first claimed under the title of Mrs Williams.
Asked later about the chair umpire’s use of her married name, she replied “It still doesn’t register that I’m married. It’s crazy. So much has happened in the past 12 months.” Vocal range: Serena Williams was an intimidating presence on No 1 Court
It was also her first Wimbledon victory while wearing compression tights under her understated white dress – a medical necessity since she suffered life-threatening blood clots in the immediate aftermath of her daughter’s birth.
There was no major fashion statement yesterday, nothing to match the superhero-style catsuit that she unveiled at the French Open. But there is still time for fancy dress. Williams looked dangerous enough to suggest that we will be seeing plenty more of her.
“Patrick [Mouratoglou], my coach, said she was a tricky opponent after the match,” said Williams, who has also chosen to follow Mouratoglou’s advice by skipping the doubles competition. Her determination to play those extra matches with Venus at the French Open may have played a role in the pectoral injury that struck her down after the third round. Although there was also a suspicion that she did not want to face her next opponent, Maria Sharapova, without more time to improve her match conditioning.
Since that withdrawal, Williams has been staying at her Paris apartment and training like the champion she is. Her next opponent here, the Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova, will give her another chance to settle into the tournament. But things are likely to escalate quickly after, probably via a blockbuster third-round meeting with fifth seed Elina Svitolina.
Still, there are plenty of motivations for Williams as she targets an eighth Wimbledon title. Might her friend Meghan show up in the Royal Box this week? “If I keep winning,” she replied with a smile.