Serena Storms Back To Reach Rogers Cup Third Round
World number one Serena Williams came out of the gate slow on Tuesday afternoon at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, but in typical Serena fashion, rallied back for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta to move into the tournament’s third-round.
After dropping the first set, Serena found herself down a break early in the second set. At 1-2 down in the second, she flipped the switch and won 11 of the next 12 games to defeat Pennetta.
“It was a good opportunity for me because I hadn’t played a match on hardcourts since April-ish, early, early April, after Miami. It was a long time ago,” said Serena. “I just told myself to drop it, like drop the racquet low and get ready to do everything I could to get into the game and to try to do different things, and that’s what I started doing out there. I was still making errors, but I just started playing better and making less errors.”
The win was the 725th of Serena’s career and her 12th straight in Toronto, winning titles in 2011 and 2013.
“I love the city. I’ve said it a million times—I really love playing here,” she added. “I love the vibe. I just love Toronto.”
Serena will take on the winner of 16th seed Andrea Petkovic and Heather Watson next.
American Alison Riske notched a very nice win over 12th seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky. Riske came back from a set down and edged out two tiebreakers for a 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(3) first-round victory.
Riske will play Germany’s Carina Witthoeft in the second-round.
Following her first WTA title at the Citi Open over the weekend, Sloane Stephens had a disappointing outing in her first-round match at the Rogers Cup. Slovak Dominika Cibulkova routinely beat Stephens 6-3, 6-4 to move on.
The other big upset on the day came from the racquet of 34-year old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia, who beat 10th seed Karolina Pliskova 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2. Lucic-Baroni will play Italian Roberta Vinci next, after Vinci ousted compatriot Karin Knapp 6-0, 6-0.
Other winners on Tuesday included 11th seed Ekaterina Makarova, 13th seed Angelique Kerber, Belinda Bencic and Victoria Azarenka.
