World No.1 Serena Williams recovered from her bout of viral illness last week, with victory over Silvia Soler-Espinosa. Serena had to retire in the 2nd rd in Wuhan whilst leading 6-5 in the first set against Alize Cornet. She started slow against the Spaniard, but soon recovered to beat her I straight sets. Meanwhile her conqueror of 3 times this year Alize Cornet continued her 2014 revival, by beating Jelena Jankovic in a tough 3 setter.
WTA China Open, Beijing: Day 3, 1st rd
Serena bt Soler-Espinosa: 7-5, 6-2
There’s slow and there’s quite slow when starting a match.
Serena Williams has always been notorious for taking her time to get into a match. But early on in her 1st rd match with Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa, it nearly cost her badly. Having fully recovered from being ill last week in Wuhan, she played rather angrily as she sprayed careless errors all over the place, especially off her forehand. Before you knew it, the 18 times Grand Slam champion was 5-0 down and on the brink of a rare bagel set defeat. Soler-Espinosa conjured up 3 set points up 5-0, but then Serena quite literally came roaring back. Like she has done on so many occasions in her career, Williams fought back from 5-0 to win 7 games on the trot and take the opening set. Soler-Espinosa’s chance, all gone in a flash. Serena’s inner warrior continued to wreak havoc on her opponent into the second set, which was a lot easier, winning it 6-2. I think Williams has proved that, it’s not how you start but how you finish in the end.
Cornet bt Jankovic: 7-5, 3-6, 6-4
Jelena Jankovic’s slim hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals, were smashed to smithereens by an in-form Alize Cornet. Cornet who has remarkably beaten Serena Williams 3 times this year, had a losing 3-0 h2h record against JJ. But due to her recent success, having reached the final in Guangzhou and QF last week in Wuhan, that losing statistic went right out the window. Early on it was the Serbian who looked the more in control, as she grabbed the break to lead 5-3. Cornet was on the edge as she faced 4 set points, but luckily for her she survived all of them. That lucky escape spurred the Frenchwoman on, to go on and win 4 games in a row and steal the set from a dejected Jankovic. Jelena though recovered quickly and levelled the match, with a 6-3 second set. But It was the Cornet who at the end of the day had the last laugh, as she managed to edge the former World No.1 6-4 in the decider and be on course for 4th meeting this year with Serena, in the QFs.
1st rd results, Mon:
Ivanovic bt Bencic: 6-2, 6-1
Garcia bt Shuai Zhang: 6-1, 6-4
Shuai Peng bt Kai-Lin Zhang (CHN): 6-4, 6-1
Lauren Davis (USA) bt Yi-Fan Xu: 6-3, 6-3
Pironkova bt: Kirilenko: 6-4, 6-1
Safarova bt Giorgi: 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
Barthel bt Mattek-Sands: 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
All Things Tennis- from Hamza Shakeel 