Serena Rolls to 40th Match Win of Year in Sweden
Fresh off her win at Wimbledon, world number one Serena Williams cruised in the first-round of the Collector Swedish Open in Bastad, Sweden on Wednesday, beating Belgian qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure 6-2, 6-1 for her 40th win of this season.
“I had never played her before, so I didn’t know what to expect,” said Serena. “And she had a really big serve and some really good holds—she played really well. It definitely wasn’t an easy match.”
Bonaventure served fairly well against Serena, and her powerful left-handed strokes gave her a little trouble early. But the American made the right adjustments in her first match back on clay to win in just 53 minutes.
She moves on to play Czech Klara Koukalova in the second-round. Koukalova beat Sweden’s Susanne Celik 7-6(8), 6-3 on Tuesday.
Koukalova does have a win over Serena in her career, a 2009 victory on clay in Marbella, Spain.
“She’s beaten me before. I played her once at the French Open too, we had a long three set match—it was actually a two-day match,” recalled Serena. “She’s never fun to play, so it’ll be a good match.”
The other first-round match from Bastad on Wednesday saw seventh-seed Swede Johanna Larrson beat Richel Hogenkamp 6-1, 6-3.
Second-seed Samantha Stosur was beaten in her second-round match on Wednesday, falling to Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, 7-6(5), 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals.
