At the 2013 Australian Open yesterday
Venus and Serena Williams lost
3-6 7-6(1) 7-5 to the #1 seed in women's doubles,
Sara Errani and
Roberta Vinci despite being up 6-3 5-3 and 6-3 6-5 with both Serena
and Venus each serving for the match and getting broken. After playing a horrendous tiebreak the two went up 3-0 in the 3rd set and then proceeded to lose 4 games in a row. They stemmed the tide at 4-all but their play for the entire match was sub-par, with Serena's movement questionable at times. Venus' serving was particularly atrocious and one memorable fault bounced on her side of the net (and never even hit the net); she eventually double-faulted on breakpoint down at 5-all to hand the Italian team the opportunity to serve out the match, which they did efficiently and promptly.
Hopefully, the result (and the potential re-injury to her right ankle) will not impact Serena's play in
the Australian Open singles quarterfinals against fellow American
Sloane Stephens tonight.
Whether it had a bearing on Serena or not, Sloane just defeated Serena, winning the last 2 sets to set up a meeting with the Az in the Semis.
ReplyDeleteTruly inspiring tennis from Sloane.
Amazing!