TENNIS WTA Madrid – Serena Williams is on track to complete a hat-trick of wins in Madrid. Having easily dispatched of Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-1 in the 1st round, Peng Shuai provided little opposition for the American as she blew her off the court 6-2 6-3 for her 14th straight win here in Spain. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, results, order of play and draws of the Mutua Madrid Open
For the past two years, leading up to the French Open, Serena Williams has been the most dominant clay court player on the WTA Tour. This year, things have been slightly different. She lost 2nd round at Charleston citing fatigue and took several weeks off including bowing out of Fed Cup play. However, true to form, she remains magnificent in Madrid. Having easily dispatched of Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-1 in the 1st round, Peng Shuai provided little opposition for the American as she blew her off the court 6-2 6-3 for her 14th straight win here in Spain.
Williams showed off her superior game throughout the match against her Chinese opponent despite having one of her legs wrapped. The serve was working in tremendous fashion with 11 aces and 1 double fault. In the first set, Williams dropped only one point on serve (10/11 on 1st serves and 6/6 on 2nd serves). This amazing stat coupled with aggressive returning saw Peng defending most of the time and unable to get any real traction in the set. She soon lost it 2-6 after 26 minutes. Williams’ return game was not always clean as she missed an easy overhead and made several unnecessary errors. Nonetheless, she played the big points well and was justly rewarded for her efforts with the set.
The 2nd set was much of the same although Williams had to save two break points in the 3rd game. The American called upon her ever reliable serve to get her out of trouble and soon broke Peng in the next game to go up 3-1 as Peng double faulted. The Chinese did well to win two more games but her being double handed on both wings and not the best of movers on the courts, seriously hampered her chances of causing any sort of trouble for the two-time defending champion. The American fired down 7 aces in the set and was again stellar in the 1st serve department winning 82% of those points. Williams closed out the set and match 6-2 6-3 in just over an hour.
Asked about her future prospects, Williams stated that she feels prepared for the French and does not feel the pressure especially since she did not win the Australian Open. She added, “I’m literally taking it one day, one match at a time and not putting any pressure on myself. That’s how I’m doing it here: literally one match at a time.” Williams will next face home crowd favourite, Carla Suarez-Navarro for a place in the quarterfinals.
