Serena's First Round Exit! | 
France’s Virginie Razzano shocks the world by defeating Serena Williams 4-6 7-6 6-3 in a three-hour see-saw match on court Phillipe Chatrier. It is Serena’s first loss in the first round of a Slam ever, snapping a streak of 46 straight first round wins for her. This was a dismal match for Williams in terms of decision making; She was also the recipient of the Announcers’ Curse, as commentators were already jotting her name down for a quarterfinal encounter with Maria Sharapova (despite the fact she down a break for the majority of the first set). For Razzano, it is a little bit of a redemption match – a year ago, right before the start of the 2011 French Open, she lost her coach and fiance Stéphane Vidal to a brain tumor. Today, she stands the tallest on day 3 and the parisian crowd rallied to her side to complete her comeback victory.
10sballs.com is unsure of whether or not Serena might have been struggling with an off-court issue. She was tearing up or close to tears after losing the second set tiebreak. Her loss today was characterized by numerous missed opportunities, going for too much, and trying to bang her way through to victory instead of playing solid clay court tennis. What Serena will be most disappointed in will be her missed break point opportunities; time and time again Razzano would serve second serves right into Serena’s wheelhouse, and time and time again Serena would miss the return completely. With Razzano suffering from leg cramps in her right leg, you might think Serena would use some of her veteran tennis experience to take a few steps back off the baseline and start grinding Razzano down. The only thing I admired about Serena’s game today was the fact she didn’t call her mom (coach) or a selected player down to the court to coach her during a changeover.
The match hinged on two key moments. Number 1 – the second set tiebreak. Razzano was down 5-1 and took her time to cross the net while Serena tried to rush. This upset Serena’s rhythm and rattled her confidence. From here, two line calls went in Razzano’s favor and Serena lost control of the match. Razzano played steady tennis, nothing spectacular and let Serena hit herself out. Going up 5-0 in the third set finally shocked Serena into a competitive mindset and the match resumed its tension. Serena won 3 games in a row easily, she hunkered down and just started making balls. Key point number 2 – Razzano had 8 match points on her serve at 5-3 in a marathon 25 minute long game that she finally closed out to win the match. Serena could’ve easily broken on one of her 5 break point opportunities, but committed unforced errors on every single one of those. And finally, what is to become of chair umpire Eva Asderakia? She is notoriously known for her “hindrance” calls on tour and she didn’t disappoint today either, giving Razzano a soft warning, a verbal warning, and then gave point penalties and two different occasions for hindrances mid-point. It seems like Eva Asderakia is the only umpire giving out hindrance penalties these days and this time it wasn’t against Serena Williams!
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