Open account with a tidy 6-3 6-3 win over Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday, to join her sister Venus in the second round of the year’s final grand slam.
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Serena Williams insists she didn’t have any flashback nightmares when she first stepped on the grounds of the US Open this year. But then he was stunningly upset in the third round at Wimbledon and was even more surprisingly eliminated in the first round of the men’s singles tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The world number one endured surprise early exits at both Wimbledon and the Olympics this summer, before admitting on Friday that a wrist injury could also hamper his bid in NY. I hope I’m still playing like this when I’m 38 years old but it’s pretty unlikely so I’m actually using that as a positive that you have to make the most of every opportunity. “That’s all I can do now”.
Although she appeared untroubled by her shoulder, Williams said the proof of full fitness would come later.
Williams equalled Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 majors with victory at Wimbledon in July. Margaret Court holds the all-time women’s record with 24 major titles.
“The US Open is obviously a special place”, she said.
Williams will need to be at her best during her first-round match against Makarova, a Russian now ranked 29th but as high as eighth previous year and who has beaten the American once in their five meetings. It’s been two years since neither reached the men’s final at a Grand Slam – that occurred at the 2014 U.S. Open. “I’ve played so many British people over the last few weeks in the Challengers that as soon as I saw Heather and Naomi had drawn qualifiers, I just had that feeling that I was going to play one of them”.
Angelique Kerber says she is ready to deal with the increasing pressure as she targets US Open glory and the world number one ranking.
A former No. 1 player who has slipped to 31st in the rankings, Ivanovic was serving for the first set at 6-5 but struggled with her serve and faltered in the tiebreaker.
“Sometimes you have to hit the wall to get better”, he said.
“Usually it’s the day of (playing that I feel it)”, Williams said.
Novak Djokovic admitted Friday that he has undergone electric shock-style treatment to heal a worrying wrist injury, but he’s still not 100 percent fit as he prepares to defend his US Open title. After that, it took a bit of time for me to get centered again.
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“Before Wimbledon it was like, just hand the trophy to Djokovic, but now it’s shifted ever so fractionally and that’s what makes it so exciting, because, if Murray wins, that’s two majors apiece this year, which hasn’t happened in a long while, and there could be a real shift of the guard happening”.
