Serena digs deep to find way past Ahn into second round
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[September 29, 2020]
PARIS (Reuters) - Sixth seed
Serena Williams battled sluggish conditions to defeat fellow
American Kristie Ahn 7-6(2) 6-0 to begin her French Open campaign on
Monday.
Playing an opponent she beat in straight sets at the same stage at
the U.S. Open less than a month ago, Williams found herself
struggling to win points on Court Philippe-Chatrier where the roof
was opened just before the match.
Williams started with three aces to win her opening game but the
102nd-ranked Ahn started moving better and chased down her
opponent's heavy groundstrokes, which on most surfaces would have
ended up as winners.
Ahn, who was making her main-draw debut at Roland Garros, went up
3-1 and served for the set at 5-4 but the 39-year-old Williams
rallied each time to force a tiebreaker.
Williams, who has won three of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles at
Roland Garros, raised her level in the tiebreaker and did not look
back from there, handing the hapless Ahn a bagel in the second set.
"The biggest difference was just confidence," Williams told
reporters. "I just need to play with more confidence, like I'm
Serena. So that was it.
"I just started playing like that, opening the court and moving and
sliding. I do think her level dropped a little bit in the beginning
of the second set and I took advantage of that."
The American, bidding to match Margaret Court's record 24 Grand Slam
titles, hit her 11th ace on her fifth matchpoint to seal the victory
in an hour and 41 minutes.
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Serena Williams of the U.S. in action during her first round match
against Kristie Ahn of the U.S. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
Williams had 28 of her 36 unforced errors in the opening set while
she hit 26 winners in all.
Next up for the American will be a second-round meeting against
fellow mother Tsvetana Pironkova, who earlier beat Andrea Petkovic
6-3 6-3.
"She's playing well but I am too. I'm ready to play her. She'll be
ready to play me," Williams said of her next opponent. "It will be a
long match, she will get a lot of balls back but so will I. I'll be
ready."
Williams and Pironkova met in the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open
this month, when the Bulgarian went down in three sets.
"It's always exciting to face her, especially after our last match,"
said Pironkova. "We played three sets, it was very exciting match,
so we'll see. I'm definitely very excited."
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Andrew Heavens
and Clare Fallon)
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