Serena Escapes Stephens Scare in Paris

June 1, 2015 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Serena_Williams (29)_0
Photo credit: Calvin Rhoden

Serena Williams hasn’t made things look easy in her French Open matches thus far, but the end result is all that matters. That was true again on Monday, as the world number one came back from a set down to beat fellow American Sloane Stephens 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 and reach the Roland Garros quarterfinals.

Coming back from a set down has been nothing new to Serena in this tournament as she had to do so in her previous two matches heading into this one. She found her rhythm in the second set, exchanging holds and breaks, before having to serve to stay in the match.

She fell behind 0-15, but quickly shook that off to hold serve and even the set at 5-5. She then rattled off six of the next eight games to close out the set and take a 4-2 advantage in the third. With the break advantage on her side, the game’s greatest player served out the remainder of the match to reach the final eight in Paris.

“I felt like if I had made a shot here or made a shot there, then maybe the first set could have been different. But today, I started out slowly, even though I was really warmed up and really ready,” said Serena. “But it’s not how you start, I guess it’s how you finish. That’s kind of how I’m looking at it.”

Serena will hope to make things easier on herself when she takes on 17th seed Sara Errani. The Italian knocked off Julia Goerges 6-2, 6-2 to advance.

Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck beat Andreaa Mitu 6-1, 6-3 to reach the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career. She will play the winner of the match between Petra Kvitova and Timea Bacsinszky.


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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