{"id":1310749,"date":"2019-05-27T21:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T03:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/champion-goddess-queen-mother-serena-wins-at-french-open\/"},"modified":"2019-05-27T21:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T03:56:00","slug":"champion-goddess-queen-mother-serena-wins-at-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/champion-goddess-queen-mother-serena-wins-at-french-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Champion, goddess, queen, mother: Serena wins at French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"
Serena Williams of the U.S. plays a shot against Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday, May 27, 2019. (AP Photo\/Pavel Golovkin)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARIS \u2014 This was one mistake too far for Serena Williams.<\/p>\n

Sure, the bad backhand put her behind only 15-30 at the outset of the second set of her opening match at Roland Garros on Monday. What made the miscue so bothersome? She\u2019d already dropped the first set against 83rd-ranked Vitalia Diatchenko \u2014 and Williams\u2019 unforced error total already was at 15 on a windy evening.<\/p>\n

So she reacted by throwing her head back and letting out a scream. Then she stepped to the baseline to serve and stomped her right foot. And simple as that, Williams righted herself: She won 11 of the next 13 points, and 12 of 13 games the rest of the way, to come back for a disappointing-to-dominant 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory at the French Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just was so frustrated at that point, because I have been training well. The past week and a half has been really good, and, God, it was, like, \u2018This isn\u2019t the Serena I have been practicing with \u2014 or that I see every day,\u201d Williams said afterward. \u201cI just let out this roar, and here I am. Yeah, so maybe that helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

She arrived on court with a black-and-white jacket bearing words such as \u201cchampion,\u201d \u201cqueen,\u201d \u201cgoddess\u201d and \u201cmother\u201d in French.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are things that mean a lot to me and reminders for me \u2014 and for everyone that wants to wear it,\u201d Williams explained. \u201cJust remind everyone that they can be champions and are queens.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reporter told Williams those four words are \u201ca lot to carry,\u201d to which the 37-year-old American replied: \u201cIt is a lot to carry, but so is being Serena Williams.\u201d<\/p>\n

She made her return to Grand Slam competition in Paris a year ago after missing five majors because of the birth of her first child. Williams pulled out before the fourth round because of an injured chest muscle, then was the runner-up at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

Williams came to Paris this time having withdrawn from each of her past two tournaments because of a balky left knee, and the one before that because of illness. She had played only nine matches all season, and so her pursuit of a record-tying 24th Grand Slam title \u2014 fourth at Roland Garros \u2014 seemed no sure thing.<\/p>\n

That goal seemed even further from her grasp with the way things began in Court Philippe Chatrier against Diatchenko, a Russian who hits two-fisted shots off both sides and upset Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got nervous out there and I stopped moving my feet. And (it) was, like, concrete blocks on my feet. I was like, \u2018You got to do something,\u2019\u201d Williams said. \u201cI was just off, basically. And then instead of correcting it, I just kept getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could the nearly impossible happen? Could Williams lose in the first round of a major? She\u2019d only done so once before in 70 Slam appearances \u2014 and that happened at the French Open, in 2012.<\/p>\n

But once Williams recalibrated everything, she took charge.<\/p>\n

One of her good friends, and another former No. 1-ranked player, Caroline Wozniacki, went in the opposite direction Monday, going from playing a perfect set to quickly fading away against an opponent who never previously had won a Grand Slam match.<\/p>\n

In a performance emblematic of a difficult season, last year\u2019s Australian Open champion bowed out in the first round 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 to 68th-ranked Veronika Kudermetova of Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely wasn\u2019t the best match I\u2019ve ever played,\u201d said the 13th-seeded Wozniacki, who had only 15 winners to Kudermetova\u2019s 40.<\/p>\n

The way-up-then-way-down showing by Wozniacki stretched her losing streak to four matches.<\/p>\n

Other seeded players exiting on Day 2 included No. 12 Daniil Medvedev, No. 15 Nikoloz Basilashvili, No. 20 Denis Shapovalov and No. 32 Frances Tiafoe on the men\u2019s side, along with No. 18 Julia Goerges on the women\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Tiafoe, a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open in January, threw up a couple of times and his game came apart late in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 loss to Filip Krajinovic of Serbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously very depleted and had nothing really in me,\u201d said Tiafoe, now 0-4 at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

Before Williams took over the main stadium, Rafael Nadal began his bid for a record 12th championship in Paris and Novak Djokovic got started on his quest for a fourth consecutive major trophy. Both won in straight sets.<\/p>\n

When it was Williams\u2019 turn, she needed a bit to get going.<\/p>\n

After 14 unforced errors in the first set alone, she had six in the second, four in the third. Her winner count went the other way: from five in the first set to nine in the second to 11 in the third. After dealing with five break points in the first set, Williams never faced another.<\/p>\n

Diatchenko sat at changeovers with a towel covering her head, as if embarrassed to be seen there.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the match, Diatchenko said, \u201cI was No. 1 between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as things progressed, a better version of Williams emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Serena, you have to play not 100%. You have to play 150,\u201d Diatchenko said. \u201cAlways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

More AP Tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/apf-Tennis<\/a> and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\u2014Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serena Williams of the U.S. plays a shot against Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday, May 27, 2019. (AP Photo\/Pavel Golovkin)AP | AP PARIS \u2014 This was one mistake too far for Serena Williams. Sure, the bad backhand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 05:03:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}