Thirty-six hours later, the world No. 1 found another antidote to jet lag and Rio traffic as she stepped onto center court at the Olympic Tennis Center for her first match and dispatched Australian Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-2 on a cool, windy Sunday afternoon before a vocal crowd.
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After three No. 1 seeds exited Sunday – Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in men’s singles, the Williams sisters in women’s doubles, and France’s Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in men’s doubles – Williams avoided that sort of result in singles.
And with all the craziness at this tournament, there’s a chance American men could win a doubles medal.
“I was getting really exhausted in the second set”, the 22-year-old said. You could see it coming for Alize Cornet, the 49th-ranked Frenchwoman, whom Williams faced Monday in the second round of the Olympic Games in Rio.
Was it a further omen when top-seeded and three-time gold medalists Serena and Venus Williams were upset in the first round of doubles? But Cornet battled back in the next two games. Her speed and recovery extended points and neutralized her opponent’s heavy groundstrokes. Afterward, she leaned over near the net, while Gavrilova dropped to her knees on the court, letting go of her racket. When Cornet struck a forehand wide, a relieved Williams celebrated the 7-6 (5) 6-2 win. She staved off two set points before taking the game and tying the set.
She and Bacsinszky defeated Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. It’s always a little tricky and you always want to at least win a match, so I feel really good about that.
Having worked so hard to gain an early edge-only to come up empty-Cornet looked deflated in the second set.
“Today they couldn’t start the matches on the outside courts”. She kept her composure in the second set while Cornet was unable to maintain her fiery performance from the opening set. Her win percentage on her second serve also climbed from 33 percent (8-of-24) to 57 percent (8-of-14).
She released all that pent-up emotion on the ball Monday night, swinging hard into a 7 (7)-6 (5), 6-2 victory. A comeback wasn’t in the cards, though, as Cornet had too much ground to make up with no room for error.
That cleared Williams’ path to the round of 16, where she will face the tough No. 15 seed, Elina Svitolina.
No. 1 Serena Williams vs.
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Now hitting with better angles and with more power, Williams soon took control of the set with yet another 3-0 lead. “But she fought. She gave it her best out there”.
