Serena imperious as French Open second round concludes
Serena Williams may have just one French Open title to her name so far, but after an imperious display against the unseeded Julia Goerges the top seed sent a strong message that she’d like to double that total this year.
Williams took just 55 minutes to send the German crashing out of Roland Garros, conceding just one game in each set.
While sister Venus may have been struggling to contain her unforced errors in her opening two rounds, Serena committed just four unforced errors in her second round match, while hitting 10 winners (all that were needed as her opponent obligingly made twenty unforced errors of her own) and three aces for the match.
Justine Henin returned to Philippe Chatrier Court on day six with a 6-3, 3-2 lead over Klara Zakopalova in her second round match, and the former world No. 1 soon wrapped up a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Czech.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Henin though, as she faltered after constructing triple match point on her serve at 5-3. Zakopalova won the next four points to create break point in the game. Break point saved, the four-time French Open champion brought up another match point of her own, and this time capitalised on it with a forehand winner down the line.
So Henin is into the third round, but is yet to produce the kind of tennis that would suggest Serena should lose too much sleep if the quarter-final match between the pair materialises.
First though, Henin will need to defeat triple Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, who was victorious against Kirsten Flipkens, winning the match 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and nine minutes.
Another whose match was incomplete on Thursday night was 13th seed Marion Bartoli, who returned to Suzanne Lenglen Court on day six with a slender 5-4 lead over Olivia Sanchez, and soon turned that small advantage into a 7-5, 6-2 victory.
The news wasn’t as good for Jie Zheng as the final matches of round two wrapped up on day six, as the Australian Open semi-finalist’s French Open campaign came undone against 187th ranked Russian Anastasia Pivovarova, who moves through to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career as a result of that 6-4, 6-3 victory.
Sam Stosur, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last year, is also through to the third round, but not without a scare against world No. 102 Rossana De Los Rios. The Australian No. 1 dropped the first set of her second round match before recovering to take the match 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.
Yanina Wickmayer was another who was pushed in her second round match with Austria’s Sybille Bammer ensuring the 16th seed earned her place in the round of 32 with a 7-6(4), 1-6, 7-5 victory out on court 17.
Meanwhile, the second highest ranked teenager in women’s tennis, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, has now equalled her best performance at a major after moving through to the third round with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over American veteran Jill Craybas.
The 29th seed’s chances of a fourth round berth, however, appear slim at best, with Serena now awaiting her in her next match.
Tags: