TENNIS – Serena Williams will make her much-awaited come-back this week at the Stanford Premier Level Tournament which starts the US Open Series. Stanford marks the first tournament for Serena since her third-round defeat against Alizé Cornet and her strange withdrawal from a doubles match with her sister Venus at Wimbledon. Diego Sampaolo
Serena suffered from a viral infection which caused her lose her equilibrium during a doubles match with Venus at Wimbledon.
“I was scared. It reminded me of when I had my other illness a while ago. I didn’t realize how I felt until later. I did not realize how sick I was. I was really ill. I did not feel great walking on the court. I didn’t even warm up for the match.”
Her sister Venus convinced Serena to stop playing.
“Venus kept saying: ‘Walk off the court. I am the older sister and I say you have to leave’.
“Because of family history I will undergo a series of tests”, said Serena.
Serena has been drawn in the same half as Azarenka, Ivanovic and her sister Venus, Andrea Petkovic and Sam Stosur at the star-studded Stanford Tournament. Agnieszka Radwanska and Angelique Kerber have been drawn in the bottom half.
Serena, who will turn 33 in less than two months, has remained at the top of the WTA Ranking for 74 consecutive weeks (the longest streak since Martina Hingis’ 80 weeks in 1997 and 1998), although she has not reached the quarter final in any of the first three Grand Slam tournaments.
Williams restarted her career in Stanford in 2011 when she won her first tournament in over one year. At that time she was ranked World Number 175 and the win in Stanford helped her move up the ranking and end the year as the World Number 12th.
Stanford will be the first hard-court tournament in the build-up to the US Open where she will chase her 18th Grand Slam title
“I feel really good about the tournament. It has been a special place for me”, said Williams.
The US legend will make her debut against Karolina Pliskova from Czech Republic who beat Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-1 6-3. It will be their first ever head-to-head match.
The first round features some exciting matches like Ana Ivanovic vs Sabine Lisicki, Dominika Cibulkova vs Garbine Muguruza, Andrea Petkovic vs Anja Tomljanovic. Venus, who received a wild card from the organizers, may face Azarenka in the second round. The Bank of he West Classic is special for Venus who made her debut on the professional circuit at the age of 14 when this tournament was held in Oakland in October 1994. Venus, who won this tournament twice, will play against Paula Kania
The first major upset of the Stanford Premier Tournament was Sam Stosur’s defeat against 16-year-old Japanese qualifier Naomi Osaka who fought back from a set down to win 4-6 7-6 7-5 after the Australian player got a match point at 7-6 in the second set and took a 5-3 lead in the decider. Osaka will face Andrea Petkovic in the second round. Petkovic recovered from a break down in the second set to beat Anja Tomljanovic 6-1 6-4.
