Serena Williams is taking the positives from her first week back on the tour after quarter-final defeat in Lexington.
The 23-time grand slam champion came up short in making a successful return to the WTA tour after a 1-6 6-4 7-6(5) defeat to Shelby Rogers in the Lexington Quarter-Finals.
It was Serena’s first tournament back since tennis’ hiatus due to COVID-19 and despite a good start, Serena wasn’t able to maintain the dominance as she was edged out by the world number 116 in 2 hours and 7 minutes.
Despite failing to reach the weekend in Lexington, Serena is seeing the positives after wins over Bernarda Pera and Venus Williams in the first two rounds, “I have only good things to take (from the match),” Serena said during her press conference.
“I could play a lot better, that’s the most thing that I can take. It’s good to know I can play a lot, lot, lot better. It was definitely difficult to get a read on it (Rogers’ serve) in the third set, these courts are just jumping incredibly high, higher than normal. She took good advantage of that.”
Serena will now head to New York for the Cincinnati and US Open tournaments, where in the latter she will aim for a 24th grand slam title.
This could be the American’s best chance to win a 24th grand slam with a number of absentees including world number one Ash Barty, Elina Svitolina, Kiki Bertens and defending champion Bianca Andreescu all withdrawing.
As for Shelby Rogers, she will now face Jil Teichmann in the semi-finals on Saturday as three out of the four semi-finalists are American.
The other semi-final will see 16 year-old Coco Gauff take on Jennifer Brady with Gauff already beating 2nd seed Aryna Sabalenka and 8th seed Ons Jabeur on her way to the last eight.
The semi-finals will take place at 11am local time (4pm BST) on Saturday.
