Serena Williams returns from injury in Rome
At the beginning of the Italian Open 12 months ago, Serena Williams and Dinara Safina were locked in a battle for the No. 1 ranking. This year, they’ve played one tournament between them since the Australian Open, as each has struggled to overcome her respective injury woes.
The closest we’ve seen Williams to centre court since her Australian Open victory at the start of 2010 was cheering on sister Venus from the stands at the Sony Ericsson Open about a month ago.
But after spending the last three months recovering from the leg problems that the world No. 1 refused to succumb to on her way to a fifth title at Melbourne Park, the younger Williams returns to competition today at the Italian Open in Rome.
It’s perhaps the toughest test the 28-year-old could have set for herself after missing so much tennis so far this year. All bar one of the top 10 women’s players are in attendance (although last year’s French Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, has already been an early casualty) in a tournament that takes place on what her playing record shows is Serena’s least favourite surface.
If there’s one saving grace for Serena as she looks to build her clay-court form ahead of the French Open, it will be the absence of a certain Belgian from the draw.
Justine Henin’s display in winning the title at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart was far from faultless, but in claiming her first tournament victory since making her comeback in January she has sent a resounding message to all challengers, including Williams, that she’s ready to reclaim the French Open crown after generously allowing Ana Ivanovic and Kuznetsova the chance to become Grand Slam champions at Roland Garros in the past two years.
It’s a message that Serena will have noted, but she won’t need to factor Henin into the equation at the Italian Open, with the four-time French Open champion making her next scheduled appearance in Madrid next week.
For the moment, Serena’s focus will be on first-round opponent, world No. 48 Timea Bacsinszky, as she seeks to add a second Rome title to the one she won in 2002 when she defeated Henin in the final.
This time last year, Serena was still smarting after having been relieved of the world No. 1 ranking by Safina, but in 2010 the Russian is fighting a different battle as she seeks to overcome the back problems that have plagued her since late last season.
At the same time in 2009, Safina’s season was reaching its zenith. She was the top ranked player in the world, even if many argued that she was not actually the best player in women’s tennis, and in Rome was about to win the first of her three titles for the year in a run that also included reaching the French Open final.
Safina would no doubt like to defend her Italian Open title this year, but it’s also fair to say that she’ll settle for surviving a second successive tournament unscathed after making her return to court in Stuttgart last week.
There, the world No. 3 drew on every ounce of her determination to overcome a slow start against Agnes Szavay in her opening match to secure a three-set victory, before falling to world No. 20 Shahar Peer in her next match.
If determination alone decided the finalists at the Italian Open, we might well see a deciding match between Williams and Safina in Rome this year. As it is, both players might just be content to play themselves into form ahead of Roland Garros later this month.
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