Serena, Gimpy Venus Win at US Open
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World No. 2 Serena Williams started her 2009 US Open campaign on Monday by defeating fellow American Alexa Glatch, a breezy 6-4, 6-1 victory over an opponent coming off injury.
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“It’s just been kind of tough with injuries and stuff,” Glatch said. “I haven’t played — I’ve really missed the whole summer hardcourt season. I haven’t played a match in a couple of weeks, and I haven’t been able to practice as much as I would have liked to, either. You know, just the preparation wasn’t what I would have liked it to be.”
Afterwards Serena described what it would be like to be a younger version of herself seeing the current version of herself.
“I would think that this Serena Williams today is super cool,” Serena said. “I would love to get her autograph. I think she would have been my idol, because it would have been like — growing up there weren’t too many black people. I loved Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil. I would have had a little favorite toward myself and Venus.”
The elder Williams sister Venus also advanced into the second round, besting Russian Vera Dushevina 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3.
Winning on a gimpy knee, Venus was asked what she would need for the next round.
“A lot of prayer,” Venus said. “It’s going to be a lot of prayer. Everything I can throw at it. But, you know, I’m tough.”
Other Top 10-seeded winners were No. 7 Vera Zvonareva easing past Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-0, 6-4, No. 8 Victoria Azarenka pounding Alexandra Dulgheru 6-1, 6-1, and No. 10 Flavia Pennetta bageling Edina Gallovits 6-0, 6-4.
Seeded upsets on the day were Kai-Chen Chang outlasting No. 25 Kaia Kanepi by the lopsided score of 6-0, 2-6, 6-2, and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez topping No. 28 Sybille Bammer 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5).
Notable unseeded players into the second round Monday were Kim Clijsters over Viktoria Kutuzova 6-1, 6-1, Kirsten Flipkens beating Jelena Dokic, Sania Mirza outlasting Olga Govortsova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, Anna Chakvetadze topping Yurika Sema 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, and Russian Maria Kirilenko breezing past Mariya Koryttseva 6-2, 6-1.
“Obviously the girl made a lot of mistakes today, but I really felt like I was able to do what I had to do and work on the things that weren’t going as well in Cincinnati and Toronto,” said Clijsters after losing two games the entire match. “I really feel like my serve was one of the things didn’t go so well there. It was really good today, so that’s just nice to see that improvement.”
Tuesday highlights in Flushing are (1) Dinara Safina vs. Aussie Olivia Rogowska, (29) Maria Sharapova vs. Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, (5) Jelena Jankovic vs. Italian Roberta Vinci, (4) Elena Dementieva vs. France’s Camille Pin, NCAA champ Mallory Cecil vs. Italian Tathiana Garbin, and (32) Agnes Szavay vs. Shahar Peer.
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