(New York) In danger of suffering her earliest elimination at the US Open since making her debut 22 years ago, Serena Williams has managed to turn the tide to defeat Sloane Stephens.
Posted on September 5, 2020 at 4:01 p.m.
Updated at 5:22 p.m.
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Williams won the third round duel between the two former tournament champions 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday.
After the game, Williams’ 3-year-old daughter Olympia greeted her mother as she sat on her father’s lap in the front row of the stands and wore a face covering. As she walked to the locker room, Williams also greeted her.
“I hope she saw her mum fight,” said Williams, who won six of her 23 Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows.
Williams fought well, as she so often has, thanks to her serve. She made 12 aces and found a way to adjust to her shots from the back of the field. What seemed so difficult at the start of the game seemed so easy at the end of the game.
Meanwhile, 2017 champion Stephens has seen her level of play drop and Williams has won 10 of the last 12 games.
Stephens threw several glances in the direction of his coach, Kamau Murray, and punched his racket against his thigh in frustration.
“In the first run, I don’t think she made a single mistake. His game was perfect. But I didn’t want to lose in two sets, ”said Williams, whose only fourth-round loss at the US Open came in the third round to Irina Spirlea in 1998, when she was 16.
Williams, who will celebrate his 39e birthday in three weeks, repeated himself to “win only one game” on Saturday.
If there were no supporters in the stands, there were still some curious, including the 15e seed Maria Sakkari, who drank orange juice and ate her lunch in the players’ box at Arthur-Ashe stadium. Sakkari will face Williams in the round of 16.
This will be a pickup from last month, when Sakkari defeated Williams at the Western & Southern Open, played at the US Open venue, not Ohio, due to the pandemic.
“You know, Serena, it’s Serena,” Sakkari said earlier in the day, after defeating American Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-1.
“You have to play very good tennis, otherwise you have no chance against her,” she added.
Sakkari, 15e seeded, only needed 55 minutes to defeat the 19-year-old American, ranked 22e.
PHOTO DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN, USA TODAY SPORTS
Maria Sakkari et Amanda Anisimova
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Anisimova made 28 unforced errors, 20 more than Sakkari, and only managed four winning shots.
Sakkari started 2020 with a 0-7 record in third-round Grand Slam tournaments. Here it is in the fourth round for a second major tournament in a row, after having achieved the tour de force at the Australian Open.
Belgian Elise Mertens, 16e seeded, Sakkari imitated, after defeating American Catherine McNally 7-5, 6-1. In the fourth round, she will face the second seed of the American Sofia Kenin, who had the best 7-6 (4), 6-3 against the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, ranked 27.e.
Czech Karolina Muchova, 20e seeded, also won their third round match, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7) against Romania’s Sorana Cirstea. Muchova will face Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round, who defeated Poland’s Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-2.
Seventh-seeded American Madison Keys forfeited due to what appeared to be an upper back or neck injury. Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet was leading 7-6 (4), 3-2 when Keys retired.
Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova defeated Croatian Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-1.
Mladenovic and Babos ousted
France’s Kristina Mladenovic and her women’s doubles partner, Timea Babos, have been taken out of competition after Mladenovic received a quarantine notice from public health officials in Nassau County.
PHOTO MANAN VATSYAYANA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic
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The leaders of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced the withdrawal on Saturday, adding that they were “obliged to adhere to government guidelines.”
Mladenovic is one of seven athletes who were further restricted during the tournament after contact tracing determined she may have been exposed to COVID-19 by compatriot Benoit Paire.
He is the only player to have received a positive result in a screening test.
Mladenovic was able to continue his singles tournament. She won her first-round match but lost in the second round after letting a 6-1, 5-1 lead slip away.
The USTA explained that the new quarantine guidelines mean that those athletes “identified as having had close and prolonged contact with the infected athlete will self-isolate in their room until the end of the quarantine period.”
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