Saturday, April 7, 2012

Whatsoever you do unto Zvonareva....

Serena Williams beat Sam Stosur 6-1, 6-1
That also shall be done unto you.

In the 2010 Family Circle Cup final, Sam Stosur so dominated Vera Zvonareva that Zvonareva was led to take some serious non-tennis action with her racquet. The whole thing was over in 52 minutes, with Stosur winning 6-0, 6-3. Today, the Australian star learned what it feels like to be the victim of that kind of domination, as Serena Williams beat her 6-1, 6-1 in the first of two Charleston semifinals.

There was good reason to believe that Stosur was at least mentally tired, having played four and a half sets of tennis yesterday. But her real problem was Williams, who played as close to perfect as one could imagine. Losing  only two points on her first serve, Williams began her domination immediately, breaking Stosur at love at the beginning of the match. The 2008 Family Circle Cup champion then held at love.

When Stosur hit three aces in a row--two at 107 mph. and one at 112 mph.--it looked as though the crowd was in for a contest. But that wasn't to be. Williams won the first set, 6-1, then opened the second with a love hold that included two aces. Stosur didn't hold until she served at 0-5.

Stosur reacts to the Williams serve
Stosur saw only two break points in the entire match, which lasted just under an hour, and she was unable to convert either of them. She said later that she did try to change her strategy during the match:

"On the return, I tried standing back a few times instead of being up on the baseline, and tried to go with more of a heavy ball, maybe play through the middle a bit more, and then I did come back up to the baseline and tried to be aggressive, but yeah, it's hard, when you're not really getting into that many rallies, to get that much rhythm. It's hard to really break into something until you can maybe extend the points. And I tried doing that, but it wasn't to be."
Williams autographs tennis balls

Williams said this was the best match she's played in a long time. She described today as "just one of those days that I could have done anything today against anybody."

4 comments:

Todd.Spiker said...

Serena didn't even look close to the player who was on the court in Miami (and not just because the way she's wearing her hair looks a little like what Venus has done with her's in the past, either). It's amazing how vastly different the many versions of Serena can be.

Diane said...

I could hardly believe what I was watching today. Serena said afterwards that today, she could have beaten Andy Roddick again, but "just today."

This is not to say that it's surprising to see Serena play well; it isn't. But today was special; she couldn't do anything wrong against a really strong opponent.

Anonymous said...

Love the headline Diane!

Diane said...

Thanks :)