Serena Williams, of the United States, prepares to return a shot from Ekaterina Makarova, of Russian Federation, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, in NY. To mark the occasion, Gatorade made a decision to combine two addictive obsessions into one work-distracting, time-killing, 8-bit ideal storm of tennis gaming fun.
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Should the American win a seventh US Open title at Flushing Meadows next Saturday, she would hold the Open Era record for the most grand slam singles titles.
Venus was pretty happy with her own play against an unpredictable though potentially risky opponent. Her Ukrainian opponent Kateryna Kozlova, ranked 93 in the world, made the two-time victor champion with many long rallies in a match that lasted almost three hours.
“I didn’t hit my serves as hard as I normally hit them”, the world No. 1, who next faces compatriot Vania King, told reporters.
Williams had a bit of an edge coming into the match, since she was familiar with Makarova’s style of play already. I didn’t go for the big 120s, just the regular.
“I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see, I haven’t been able to play that much since Wimbledon”, said Williams.
When it’s shut, as was the case Wednesday because of showers that delayed play on all other courts for hours at a time, the roof amplifies all of that ambient noise. “Simone and Simone, I should say, to have them so influenced by me”, Williams said.
Venus Williams found her footing and her form at the U.S. Open Thursday. “If you get to the point where you can’t do that, that’s where you need to start to think, OK, I need to move on”.
1 seed and Venus is No. 6, the first time she’s been seeded in the top 10 since 2010.
Olympic gold medalist and second-overall seed Andy Murray notched his own straight-set win, defeating Lukas Rosol in the final match of the day.
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Meanwhile, Juan Martin Del Potro-who Murray defeated in Rio-kept up his string of summertime success with a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory over Diego Schwartzman at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
