Serena has been judged to have a tough draw in her first two rounds, but she came through the flames of Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova unscorched, and not dropping more than 4 games in a set. She continued this trend against Nicole Gibbs, who is quite well-known for speaking her mind on Twitter, and not shying away from political or other opinions. ”I think she definitely speaks her mind a lot, and I think that’s really awesome,” Williams said of Gibbs. “I think having that opportunity and that platform that we have, to be able to say things that we feel and speak up for social issues or things that aren’t right, or things that are right, good things and bad things.” In the match, Serena was the dominating player, and the scoreline definitely reflected what was happening on the court. After Gibbs won her only game in the first set, she didn’t get to another game point and only to one more deuce. Serena won the first set 6-1 after 27 minutes.
In the second set, some of Gibbs’ nervousness started to disappear, and she played more freely and daringly. She did get broken in the third game again, but kept playing well, and when Serena was serving for the match at 6-1 5-2, Gibbs came out swining and broke Serena. The more experienced player kept her cool, and broke Gibbs to win 6-1 6-3 after 1 hour and 4 minutes. The keys for Williams to winning this match so quickly and easily was Serena winning 83% of points after 1st serve and won 69% of short rallies. “I have been doing the things I have been doing in practice, and hopefully I can build up on this,” said Serena after her match. “That’s all I want to do.” Round of 16 opponent of Serena Williams will be 16th seed Barbora Strycova. The Czech has been incredibly thus far, getting wins over Elizaveta Kulichkova, former World No. 9 Andrea Petkovic, and 24th seed Caroline Garcia all in straight sets. Serena leads the head-to-head 2-0, but they haven’t played since 2012. “I’ve seen her play a lot,” Williams said. “She’s super fit. She has a good game. She’s very aggressive, so that would be nice to play.
“But again, I don’t have anything to prove in this tournament here. Just doing the best I can. Obviously I’m here for one reason. But at the end of the day, this is all a bonus for me and I look forward to playing her. I’m ready for her.”
