SERENA STARTS HER JOURNEY, THE BEST OF DAY 2 BY ROS SATAR

Written by: Staff on 1st September 2015

SERENA STARTS HER JOURNEY, THE BEST OF DAY 2 BY ROS SATAR

epa04907060 Serena Williams of the US hits a return to Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia on the first day of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 31 August 2015. The US Open runs through 13 September, which is a return to a 14-day schedule. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

Talk about if you blinked, you’d miss it. It took just eight games, count them… EIGHT, for Serena Williams to start her journey to carve another notch in history’s bedpost!

OK so it was unfortunate that Vitalia Diatchenko had to retire after 30 minutes, but surely that will have settled the nerves. Because as great as Serena is, she can (and indeed probably should) get nervous.

Still – no need for that now, as she explained after her swift win following the dazzling opening ceremony on Monday night.

“It was definitely different and bizarre, but at the same time I was still focused,” she said. “I kept thinking, you know, just stay focused, don’t lose it. You never know what can happen.”

She continued: “It’s great to be here in Arthur Ashe Stadium, to be American, just to be on this journey in my life. You know, it’s kind of awesome that this is the last Grand Slam of the year, because if it were in a different country, I think I would still love it, but it’s not the same as being an American playing in New York, playing for that ultimate goal. It’s really fun; I’m literally enjoying the moment.”

And here, good readers we hit a dilemma. On the one hand – we all want to see a bit o’ history (maybe it’s the Brit in me, I don’t know)! Then on the other hand, don’t we think it’s about time that Ms Williams had someone to challenge her at the top of the tree?

Well step on up Simona Halep – I don’t know what these tops seeds are doing, but people are retiring willy-nilly as Marina Erakovic retired in the set against the Romanian, for a 6-2 3-0 ret score-line. I may have digitally uttered this words once, but in light of Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal, I shall scribe them once more. Halep (and indeed Victoria Azarenka) are the only people who can probably give Williams a run for her money. This tournament demands a solid and exciting, all-sold-out-before-the-men’s final and ladles and jellyspoons, we could be very well on our way to one.

While we are on the subject of Azarenka, she was another ‘casualty’ from Cincinnati, retiring in her third round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova so as not to risk a leg injury she had been struggling with. She looked sharp as a tack out there, and it is about time she was mixing it back up at the top.

Cast your minds back to a sunny day in London. Come on… we don’t have THAT many of them so it should stand out. Garbine Muguruza earned herself a standing ovation from the crowd after losing in the final, and after a nit of the expecting post-maiden-Slam turmoil, she eased to a victory over Carina Witthoeft 6-2 6-4.

Today’s seed carnage bid farewell to Lucie Safarova – despite looking like she had picked up some form, she was all at sixes and sevens against Lesia Tsurenko who had the Czech on the back foot in the first set, but in the second set, really dominated, breaking her three times, although to Safarova’s credit she did fight off three match points, losing the fourth, with the Ukrainian winning 6-4 6-1. Joining her was Timea Bacsinszky who was derailed by Barbora Strycova, in straight sets 7-5 6-0.

Ros Satar is a regular contributor to 10sballs.com and runs Britwatch Sports (@britwatchsports), because we Brits like watching sport. Occasionally we’re good at it.

Topics: 2015 US Open, Ros Satar, Serena Williams, Tennis News, US Open tennis, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

September 1, 2015 at 5:30 pm

-@serenawilliams STARTS HER JOURNEY, THE BEST OF DAY 2 BY @rfsatar- http://t.co/8dBlgpuLuU #tennis #USOpen2015 #USOpen #serenawilliams #WTA
rfsatar says:

September 2, 2015 at 1:33 am

RT @10sBalls_com: -@serenawilliams STARTS HER JOURNEY, THE BEST OF DAY 2 BY @rfsatar- http://t.co/8dBlgpuLuU #tennis #USOpen2015 #USOpen #s…