Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati

That’s what [CR1] Serena Williams (USA) had today against [CR22 ] Samantha Stosur (AUS). A week ago at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Serena dismantled Stosur’s game and won the match in the 2nd round fairly comfortably, 6-0, 6-2. Today was a totally different story; who would have believed that Serena would have to go to two tie-break sets to win the match.  She finally won the match 7-6(7), 7-6(7), but it was not pretty.

How does one explain this?  Was it simply that Stosur played better or was it that Serena played poorly? Watching the match, it appeared as if Serena was stuck in mud.  She appeared not to be ready for the shots to come back and just was completely off her game.  This could be a lack of match play and/or it could be the result of Serena putting too much pressure on herself to do well. Serena squeaked out the victory, but she knows she will have to improve her game against her next opponent.