USA TODAY International Edition
Serena plays it ‘ cool’ in WTA’s Kentucky restart
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Several of the biggest tennis stars in the world have descended on Central Kentucky this week for the resumption of the Women’s Tennis Association tour.
Just don’t expect to see them taking in any of the local attractions.
“I never expected to be playing here in Kentucky, but it’s close to Florida, it’s easy to get here for me,” Serena Williams said Saturday in a Zoom news conference previewing the Top Seed Open in Nicholasville. “I’m excited. There won’t be fans here, it’s all virtual, but it’s cool. … It’s also a really cool opportunity to come to Kentucky and kind of be isolating in a different place. It’s the same thing all over again, but it’s nice to kind of get out, I guess, because I’m so used to traveling. I’m still trying to see how I like everything.”
Williams and her sister Venus, both former world No. 1- ranked players, will be joined by former world No. 1 and twotime Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, 2017 U. S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, 16- year- old American up- and- comer Coco Gauff and others in the inaugural Top Seed Open.
The event, which was added to the WTA schedule in July, is the first WTA tournament hosted in Kentucky and marks the first U. S. tournament since the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports in March. The tournament begins Monday, with the final scheduled for Sunday.
After arriving in Lexington, participants are being asked to go nowhere but their hotel and the Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville.
“I have no idea about Kentucky because I don’t see anything besides the hotel and the tennis facility,” Azarenka said.
Being able to ensure participants’ safety as much as possible during the pandemic was an important step for the first- year tournament to be held as one of the few warm- up opportunities before the U. S. Open this month.
“At the end of the day, yeah it’s cool to play tennis, but this is my life and this is my health, so I’ve been a little neurotic to an extent,” Serena Williams said. “That’s just what I have to be.”
Most of the athletes participating this week are coming off long layoffs due to the COVID- 19 shutdown, but some, like Stephens, were able to return to competitive action at the three- week World Team Tennis tournament held at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia in July.
“The job opportunities here are great,” Stephens said. “Obviously, at a new facility that’s really nice. It’s a great little swing, going into ( the Western & Southern Open), going into the U. S. Open in that bubble. Good opportunities all around, and I think everyone was happy with how quick they were able to pull this together.”