Serena Williams has admitted that she has a long way to go to return to her best tennis after she lost a three set battle to Petra Kvitova.
The 23 time grand slam champion fell to the eighth seed 6-3 2-6 6-3 in just under two hours with the Czech Republican breaking Williams four times. The recent Wimbledon finalist returned to action in March after her complicated pregnancy and is yet to win a WTA title since returning. Despite playing better within the last two months, the American admitted that she has a long journey to the top of the women’s game, “I’m still at the very beginning. You know, this is a long comeback,” explained Williams.
“I just began. I just started. Definitely at the very, very beginning. I’m getting there, and I’m going to just continue to work hard, and hopefully I’ll start winning more matches.”
The former Cincinnati champion also explained that she is still getting use to the current pace of the women’s game and praised how Kvitova played, “Yeah, I feel like I did better in the longer points, but I feel like she kept it short more than me. I was looking forward to the longer points, which is not normal, but long points or short points, I like them, so, yeah, it’s just getting used to, you know, the pace and everything again.”
Serena Williams will now head to the US Open in a week and half time knowing that she has only won one match in the US Open Series so far. However the American is likely to be seeded at the final slam of the year although she is likely to face a top eight seed in the third round.
