Cynthai Lum/WireImage.comSerena
played 'worse than a junior.'PARIS, MAY 26 - You can
look at Serena Williams near 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 loss to Klara Zakapalova
in two ways: one, that she's rusty, her sore knee hurts and she's super
vulnerable; and two, that because she's rusty, she had to scratch through
the match and being pushed early on at the Slam is part of her history,
and her very successful history at that.
" I think I just played horrendous, and I think I was a little nervous
because I hadn't won a match on clay all year," she said. "I
was just desperate for a win, and I think it pretty much showed in my
game.
She's looked shaky plenty of times in the first week of Slams and gone
on to win titles. That has never happened in Paris, as in 2002, she was
nails the whole way through, but it's occurred in Melbourne and New York
and she came through with flying colors.
Yes, her feet were stuck in the dirt way too much, her backhand crosscourt
was about as fragile as it's ever been and she could have served with
much more ambition, but she did what she had to when she needed to, mostly
smoke untouchable returns off powder-puff serves.
"Mostly I played really horrible today," said Serena, who finished
with 35 winners and 35 unforced errors. "I didn't move. I just played
junior tennis or even worse, and, you know, it just showed. It was what
it was."
After she won the Australian Open, Serena said that her main goal the
rest of the year was to win her second Roland Garros title. She denied
making that statement on Tuesday, but here's what she said on a hot night
in Melbourne.
"I know I can do Wimbledon, but the key is the French," Serena
said. "Last year I put way too much pressure on myself and I was
tight and over-hit. But if I'm fit and more positive, I can do it. But
for whatever reason, even though I own an apartment there, the French
don't clap for me. I'm thinking I have a good chance to win Paris, not
the calendar year Grand Slam, but Paris and then the next Grand Slam and
the next Grand Slam and the next Grand Slam..."
But times have changed since then. She won a classic three setter over
Venus in the Miami semis and then was destroyed by Victoria Azarenka in
the final. Her clay season became a whitewash after she flew to Marbella
the day after Miami and fell to none other than Zakapalova. Her knee began
to ache and she couldn't pull herself together, going o for the dirt until
Tuesday.
"Well, I feel like I've been in an uphill battle, and I feel like
it hasn't been easy. I'm just fighting through it, and, I can't give up,
so I'm just going to do the best that I can and go with it."
Serena's draw looks very decent until the quarters: a match against Virginia
Ruano Pascual (who of course beat Nicole Vaidisova), maybe Viktoriya Kutuzova
or Peng Shuai, then possibly Alexandra Wozniak or maybe, just maybe Alexa
Glatch. The quarters would likely bring Svetlana Kuznetsova, unless Aga
Radwanska rediscovers her form.
So for all the angst of her first Tuesday, there isn't that much to be
concerned about yet, unless her bum knee completely gives out, but if
it's so bad, why didn't she pull out of the doubles? Because while it's
not perfect, it's not that bad.
"My leg felt pretty good, actually," she said. "Definitely
more confident in moving it, and it definitely felt much better than the
past few weeks."
Now, all Serena needs to feel a little love from the crowd. She got very
little against Zakapalova on Suzanne Lenglen, where's she experienced
heartache and triumph.
"It was what it was," she said with a sad face. "They don't
really pull for me a lot here. That's fine."
Changes Coming at Roland Garros: A Roof and Night Sessions?
Perhaps the most remarkable thing that Roland Garros tournament director
Gilbert Ysern revealed in a breakfast meeting with American and British
journalists on Tuesday was that France is very concerned that they don't
have enough clay court specialists, and that the FFT is planning on
building many more clay courts at the nation's regional training centers.
Outside of Roland Garros, where many of the top players train, most of
France's other centers are full of hard courts, which is where juniors
ply their trade. Given that Roland Garros is the crown jewel of the clay
court season and that it's France's most important tournament, Ysern feels
it's critical that French players better adapt to clay and go deeper in
the second week of the tournament. It's quite ironic given that the American
brass says much the same thing about their players in regards to a lack
of training on dirt.
Some other highlights from Ysern's honest and insightful comments:
The tournament hopes to construct a new stadium by 2014 (although 2013)
is a possibility, with a roof and, drum roll, please, very likely night
sessions.
The stadium will be a good 5-minute walk form Philippe Chatrier in a nearby
park, will currently, there is a nursery (flowers, not toddlers).
Despite the recession, tickets sales have gone extremely well where nearly
every session is sold out. Only hospitality sales suffered a bit, down
3%.
Roland Garros feels that it's in a healthy competition with the other
Slams to keep improving the facilities, noting that Wimbledon's decision
to put a roof on was a motivating factor.Some 25% of the tickets sold
go to foreigners.Venus Williams says she (and Serena) wants to play in
the Fed Cup final and if she ends up committing, will keep her word. But...
"We both really want to play, but once we give our word we want to
keep it. It's just important for us to make sure it's something we can
do. Being at the end of the season is tough, and we both obviously expect
to be playing in the championships, too. By that time, it's even tougher."
We had a debate on Radio Roland Garros as to whether Juan Carlos Ferrero
besting Ivan Ljubicic would be an upset. I said no, my partner Eli Weinstein
said yes and JCF went on to win in five. I though Ljubicic would win the
match, but don't think that the 2003 RG Open taking out a very good but
not great player on clay could be called an upset, even though Ferrero
just won his tournament on clay in six years in April. At least to a small
degree, Ferrero can still conjure up some magic.
Wednesday Popcorn matches of the day on the backcourts: Nicolas Almagro
v. Ernests Gulbis and Agnes Szavay v. Elena Vesnina. Show court matches
between Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova, Venus Williams and Lucie Safarova,
Gilles Simon and Robert Kendrick and Andy Murray against Potito Starace
aren't too shabby either.
Question and Answer of the Day Goes to Serena: Q. Must be kind of nice to go back to your own place
[her apartment in Paris]? SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I want to go home and see my kids
and relax. Q. Dogs? SERENA WILLIAMS: Could be [said with a coy smile].
