Serena Williams continued her extraordinary winning streak against Maria Sharapova with an emphatic 6-1 6-1 win over the Russian at the 2019 US Open.
The American has now won 19 consecutive matches against her most high-profile rival in a sequence that stretches all the way back to January 2005.
“(Maria) has won five Grand Slams and been in the final of even more, so that’s never easy,” Serena said in her on-court interview. “Every practice after (I heard the news) was super-intense and super-focused because it’s an incredibly tough draw.”
The American continued, “She’s such a good player that I have to super-focused when I play her. Every time I come up against her, I bring out some of my best tennis.”
In truth, the match did not live up to expectations this time because it was never really a contest. Serena played brilliantly throughout and never gave Sharapova a chance to establish a foothold in the match.
The first set was especially one-sided. The American powered down some huge serves and trademark winners as she won four games in quick succession to take the score from 2-1 to 6-1 in the space of about ten minutes.
Serena saves five break points to keep Sharapova on the back foot
To Sharapova’s credit, she fought harder in the second set and earned a total of five break points. Had she taken any of them, she might have got herself into the match.
Unfortunately for the Russian, she made errors on two of them. And she could do nothing about the others. Serena saved two with unstoppable serves and one with a superb backhand pass.
The result of all that was another 6-1 set in the American’s favour. Albeit this time it took 35 minutes to achieve instead of 25.
After the match, Serena recalled the backhand pass on break point. “That was definitely a big point for me,” she said. “(Maria) is the kind of player that gets momentum and starts going, so I was really excited that I hit that winner.”
In the second round, the 23-time Grand Slam champion will face an entirely different kind of challenge. She will take on 17-year-old compatriot Catherine McNally.
It promises to be a memorable occasion for the youngster. She set it up by earning her first Grand Slam win: 6-4 6-1 against Timea Bacsinszky. However, if Serena plays as well as she did against Sharapova, it could turn into a nightmare.
