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World No. 1 Serena Williams improved to 26-1 in 2015 after breezing to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Czech qualifier Andrea Hlavachova Tuesday at the French Open. Serena’s now won her last 15 Grand Slam matches and she’s trying to take home her 20th career Slam title, but hinted her elbow which forced her out of Rome is still not healthy.
“I was really happy to get through that and see how my elbow was going to do,” the 33-year-old Serena said. “Not 100%, but I was able to serve okay, I didn’t serve as many aces as I normally do. The good thing is it gets better every day. Another day off tomorrow and hopefully if I can win another round it would be better.”
Last year Serena lost in the second round to Garbine Muguruza, so she joked that she’s defended her points!
Someone who won’t be defending her points is Genie Bouchard. The brash and blonde Canadian made the semifinals a year ago, but this she crashed out today to Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-4. Bouchard has just one win in her last nine matches.
“Honestly I don’t know what to say,” Bouchard said. ‘It’s been kind of the same as how I have been feeling recently on the court. Just not like myself.
“I feel like I have been trying to work on what’s been going wrong, and I feel like I have been making progress. So to still have matches like this is actually disappointing. But, I mean, at the same time it’s just a tennis match and, you know, I need to not worry too much. Life is still good. Everyone has highs and lows in their career. This is a little bit of a low point for me.”
After her first opening round Grand Slam exit, the sixth-ranked Bouchard will drop in the rankings down to 9 with the prospect of defending her Wimbledon finalist points.
Mladenovic had just reached the finals in Strasbourg, and nearly choked a 5-0 second set lead.
“I’m very satisfied,” the 22-year-old Frenchwoman said. “In my head, first, to be able to finish the match, you know, 5-4, and I served well. Otherwise, you know, 5-5 could have been much more complicated.”
Former No. 1 and 25th seed Jelena Jankovic also was ousted, she fell to Sesil Karatancheva.
Other winners were 2-time Wimbledon Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki and Madison Keys.
On Wednesday, Maria Sharapova resumes her title defense. Former finalists Sam Stosur and Simona Halep are also on court plus another champion, Ana Ivanovic.
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