Call it a comeback: Serena rallies her way into 3rd round
AT A GLANCE
PARIS » After playing so infrequently, it’s as if Serena Williams is starting from scratch.
Sure looked that way for a bit more than a half-hour in the French Open’s second round on Thursday, when she dealt with muscle soreness, a lack of verve and a bunch of mistakes. So many mistakes.
And then, suddenly, after unleashing one particularly powerful backhand return winner that she punctuated with a shout, Williams was back. She was animated. Determined. Dominant, even. Shaking off some rust in her first Grand Slam tournament since giving birth nine months ago, Williams recalibrated her shots and erased a deficit of a set and a break to beat 17th-seeded Ashleigh Barty of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that ended shortly before dusk.
“I lost the first set, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to try harder. I’ve got to just try harder,’ she
LOOKAHEAD TO FRIDAY
After beating two qualifiers, former French Open champion Novak Djokovic faces a serious test against 13th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the fourth round. No. 2-seeded Alexander Zverev, No. 4 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 7 Dominic Thiem are among other big names in action in the men’s draw. In women’s play, second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki takes on local favorite Pauline Parmentier of France. Maria Sakkari hopes to become the first Greek woman to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros in the Open era when she plays 14th-seeded Daria Kasatkina.
FRIDAY’S FORECAST
Sunny spells with a chance of rain. High of 73 degrees
THURSDAY’S WINNERS Seeded winners in the men’s second round:
No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No. 3Marin Cilic, No. 5Juan Martin Del Potro, No. 6 Kevin Anderson, No. 7
told the crowd afterward. “And Serena came out.” Well put. Williams had all sorts of trouble in the opening set, compiling 12 unforced errors. By the time the second Dominic Thiem, No. 9 John Isner, No. 11Diego Schwartzman, No. 15Lucas Pouille, No. 16 Kyle Edmund, No. 18 Fabio Fognini, No. 27 Richard Gasquet, No. 31Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Seeded winners in the women’s second round:
No. 1 Simona Halep, No. 3 Garbine Muguruza, No. 6 Karolina Pliskova, No. 7 Caroline Garcia, No. 11 Julia Goerges, No. 12 Angelique Kerber, No. 16 Elise Mertens, No. 18Kiki Bertens, No. 19 Magdalena Rybarikova, No. 24 Daria Gavrilova, No. 28 Maria Sharapova.
THURSDAY’S LOSERS Seeded losers in the men’s second round:
Shapovalov. No. 24 Denis
Seeded losers in the women’s second round:
No. 15 Coco Vandeweghe, No. 17Ash Barty, No. 27 Zhang Shuai, No. 30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
STAT OF THE DAY 38:
The number of aces hit by Isner in his 6-7 (8), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-2 win over Horacio Zeballos.
set was merely one game old, she had been broken twice in the match, each time at love, a rather surprising development for the owner of one of her sport’s most dangerous serves.
After only three winners in the first set, she had 25 the rest of the way.
“When push came to shove, the real Serena came out. And that’s one of her best assets: When her back is against the wall, the best comes out,” Barty said. “And that happened early in the second, and early in the third again.”
When Williams served out the victory with a backhand winner down the line, she raised both arms.
“I felt like it’s been a long way and a long journey, and I’m still getting there, you know. But I have been working really hard, for a really long time,” said Williams, who is ranked 451st, 450 spots below her career high. “I just am hoping that every day I’m out there, every match I’m out there ... it will come together.”
Next for Williams is a third-round match against 11th-seeded Julia Goerges.
Get through that, and Williams would face either five-time major champion Maria Sharapova or 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova.