Serena Williams crashes out of the opening round; Virginie Razzano triumphs – French Open 2012
One of the biggest upsets on the French Open was witnessed on Tuesday when the world number five, Serena Williams, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the 111th ranked Frenchwoman, Virginie Razzano. The former
Roland Garros champion lost the three-setter 6-4, 6-7(5), 3-6, to end her Grand Slam campaign with sheer dismay.
Serena was rated among the strongest contenders for winning the French Open crown this season but her below par performance in the Tuesday’s encounter was extremely disappointing for the American fans. The winner of 13 Grand Slam
titles faced a world class performance from Razzano, who came from behind to turn the tables on the fifth seed American. Serena bagged the opening set with conviction and was looking good up till then. Her game went through a terrible slump in the following
two sets to let her talented opponent to advance into the second round of the mega event.
29-year-old French contender took her time to get settled in the matchup and once getting into her winning groove, she got under the skin of the fifth ranked opponent. Razzano dropped the opener but dragged the following set to
a tie-breaker round. She took the better of Serena in set number two and then went on with her winning impetus in the decisive set to conclude her emphatic victory.
Both competitors traded four break points apiece in the matchup but the vital difference between the two proved to be the first serve conversions. The American power house could barely secure 34 out of 50 points and her counterpart
bettered her with 53 out of 89 first serve points to come out as the winner. Williams displayed her typical pin-point hitting in the opening set but gradually lost her steam in the following sets to let her French opponent take hold of the momentum.
"In my mind I just never lost," Razzano said afterwards. "Yes, it was 5-1 in the tie-break, but in my mind I knew I could win this set. I knew I could come back, and I knew I had to do that. You don't need to think about other
things, you just try to come back and try your best every time, on every point. After, if she played too well, I could say I did my maximum, and she wins. But I believed I could win. Even at 5-1 in the tie-break, I knew I hadn't lost yet.”
Razzano will next face Arantxa Rus of Netherland in the second round of the tournament.
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