IS QUEEN SERENA’S CROWN SLIPPING?
QUESTIONS over the long reign of Serena Williams at the top of women’s tennis were reignited last night as she suffered a crushing loss at the Miami Open. The world No 1 looked listless as she went down 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 to Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova at a tournament where she is usually so imperious. Williams has won the last three Miami Opens and was on a 20-match winning streak here, but notched up 55 unforced errors in losing to the world No 19. Williams has yet to win a title in 2016. And, with her father Richard making a now extremely rare appearance courtside, at times she barely seemed to care. ‘Physically I didn’t move today,’ said Williams, who denied she was carrying any injuries. ‘There’s obviously expectations on me. I can’t win every match. I have to be 300 per cent every day.’ Jo Konta breezed into the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 win against unorthodox Romanian Monica Niculescu to become the first British female ever to make the quarter-finals here. Heather Watson failed to join her compatriot in the last eight after she lost 6-3, 6-4 to world No 5 Simona Halep. But after three victories this week the 23-year-old should be able to look forward to a summer trip to Rio. Having slid down the rankings into the eighties, the Channel Islander will now be up to around 54 after this week, which ought to get her into the Olympics. The cut-off point for entries in early June will be around the low sixties for singles and Watson ought to be pretty safe. ‘I’m just pretending that I’m still fighting for it,’ she said after being unable to capitalise on a positive start that saw her lead 3-1 in the opening set before losing the next five games. Unfortunately for Watson, Halep is a similar type of player to her but just does everything a little better. Watson said that she was carrying a strain in her upper left leg that she picked up when winning the Monterrey Open earlier this month. She had little option but to keep striking out, and that was the cause of 33 unforced errors, which was always going to be too many against the highly mobile Halep. Watson did re-group after a delay between sets when a spectator was taken ill, but the result was never in much doubt. ‘I did what I could,’ said Watson, who now plans to play a heavy schedule all over Europe before the grass-court season.