For the 1,099th time in her career, Venus Williams took her place on the basic line for a tennis competition and prepared for the fight. As has been the case almost every time she has participated in the past 31 years, Williams fought hard to the end, but there was no fairytale outcome in the midwest. After two competitive sets in midfield, the in-shape Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maleiro Williams spread in the first round of the Cincinnati Open with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
In the beginning, things had looked particularly gloomy for the 45-year-old Williams while struggling to keep the ball in court and quickly two breaks fell on 1-4 in the opening set. At the age of 22, Bouzas Maleiro has increased in recent months and its ranking of 51 will be a series of form that includes a fourth round in Wimbledon, followed by a quarterfinals in Montreal last week. The Spaniard showed its quality by retrieving the basic line, maintaining consistent depth, offering few mistakes and looking for possibilities to kill the pace of Williams.
“I could hear their dismay when the set score looked bleak in the first set,” said Williams smiling. “But I think,” People, it’s not over yet. This is just the beginning. ” So we came to 4-4 and you can also hear the excitement.
Williams gradually found her rhythm and fought hard and picked up both breaks while dragging the level in the opening set. She produced her best piece of tennis in the second set, used her forehand to bully the Spaniard from the baseline and to prove the lasting quality that she has with her destructive first service to lead 4-3. In the last phases of both sets, Bouzas Maneiro’s Schottolerance, defense and calmness under pressure, however, determined the match.
Although a loss of the first round at any event ever was a tragedy for a player of Williams’ caliber and record, at the age of 45 and after having participated so thin in recent years, her expectations are low. Although her victory in the world no. 35 Peyton Stearns in Washington DC was a big performance last month, she also left the court with pleasure with how she had played on Thursday and again enjoyed the sensation of fighting on the field.
Again, Williams, who had already won four Grand Slam titles and no. 1 reached by the time her opponent was born, was competitive, fought hard and did not look in place against a talented player in one of the largest tournaments in the world.
“At the moment it is difficult for me to be upset,” said Williams. “Of course I want to win the game, but it’s hard for me to be [sad]. If you are on tour, day in, day out and you lose a competition, you are like: “Man, I have some opportunities.” I know I have lost this competition because I just need more competitions. After this match I just think: “Okay, what am I going to work on?” Instead of: “Gosh, I ruined that.”
“Yes, I could have played better. But what I feel good about is that I am going for it. Nobody immersed my head. She definitely had some great photos, but I went for it, and sometimes they do not land, and sometimes she had some great photos. But it is not that I didn’t know what to do. It is just that I had to work on it.”
After 10 days of practice, Williams will then participate in the renewed US Open Mixed Doubles tournament next to Reilly Opelka and she will certainly also receive a singles main table joker sign. Although it would be logical at her age for the US Open to mark her last Grand Slam performance, Williams has already shown that her next move is impossible to predict for three decades.
Elsewhere, Coco Gauff said she is willing to exhaust her energy reserves in the service of winning her second Grand Slam title of the season at the US Open. “It feels like I’m busy on that nitro button and just leaves it all the way there. This is the part of the season that I have the feeling that you are just:” I just want to give it all literally. “
Jacob Fearnley, British no. 3, with 6-1, 6-4 for Zizou Bergs of Belgium, fell in the first round.
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