Williams addressed the woes directly to reporters after the match.
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Letting Svitolina off the hook, Williams went down an early 2-0 lead. The shift in momentum and resulting dropped set apparently rattled the american, as she lost the next nine games to the Serbian. She had eight double faults and put just 55 percent of her first serves in play, but she won 79 percent of those points. The American was not going to let this happen again.
“I just decided that if I wanted to stay out here and keep playing, I had to pick my game up a level”, Williams, who finished the match with 13 aces to the Serb’s two, said on the WTA website. She was beginning to show us why she’s the one to beat during this year’s Emirates Airline US Open Series.
In the second, Serena opened up a 3-0 advantage, only to see it evaporate to a 3-4 deficit. To say that the Ukrainian needed to hold serve here was an understatement.
It would be a nice milestone for Williams, but surely not the title she’s focused on winning at the moment.
Halep has had recent success against Williams, though not a lot.
Ivanovic was the first to break ahead keeping the draw on deuce short winning on two breaks to play for the tying set.
She will now face Ana Ivanovic after the former world No 1 rallied to defeat home hopeful Sloane Stephens 2-6 6-4 6-1. With the end in sight, she cranked up the biggest weapon in women’s tennis and closed out the set and the match, 7-5, 6-3, finishing with an emphatic ace out wide. “I’ve never practiced my serve enough”.
Serena Williams wants to coin a new phrase after she “pulled a Serena” to come back and win her Western & Southern Open quarterfinal match.
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Also in late night action on Grandstand Court, Romanian Simona Halep continued her quiet run toward the finish line by beating her longtime nemesis, Andrea Petkovic.
