Serena Williams made an outstanding Cincinnati debut on Monday by defeating Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 6-2, showing no signs of the issues that ailed her two weeks ago in San Jose.
After winning just one game in that shocking defeat to Johanna Konta in early August, the 23-time grand slam champion needed just 66 minutes to dispatch the struggling Australian, winning all but two first serve points and saving the only break point she faced.
I realized after Wimbledon that this is a journey for me. It’s going to come,” Williams said on-court. “I’m taking it every day, one day at a time. I’m just fortunate to be back here playing on these courts, playing tennis.”
Williams’ top form was on display from the opening stages. She slammed an ace on the first point, ripped an inside-out forehand to go up 0-30 in Gavrilova’s opening service game and laced another groundstroke off a poor second serve on break point.
The two-time Cincinnati champion displayed fine movement as well, running across the court at 3-1 and closing the rally with a short forehand that punctuated her first set play. She faced just one break point and hit 14 winners to four unforced errors in the opening frame.
Williams faced no let-off in the second set. Aided by a Gavrilova double fault — one of seven — she raced to a 0-40 lead at 1-1, then pushed a deep backhand that handcuffed the Australian. Double faults remained a problem for the under-pressure Gavrilova, who struggled through a lengthy game at 2-4 and eventually double faulted away a second break.
Fittingly, Williams slammed a service winner on her first match point, bringing her tally of service points won to nearly 80 percent. Gavrilova, the world No. 23, on the other hand, won fewer than half of points on her serve and saved only five of the nine break points Williams earned.
Those numbers all stood in stark contrast to her performance in San Jose, where Konta won 12 straight games. The personal concerns that burdened Williams there, and caused her to withdraw from Montreal last week, did not appear in Cincinnati. Instead, she displayed form more akin to that of her run at Wimbledon, where she reached the final.
Her task will get no easier however, as she meets No. 8 seed Petra Kvitova on Tuesday. Gavrilova, meanwhile, continues her sluggish season but will seek to defend her title in New Haven next week.
