After beating Danka Kovinic fairly handily Monday night, Serena Williams believes, and in the mental crucible of tennis, that can be invaluable. Williams said the win over Kovinic proved to her that she can still play at the elite level.
With each tournament she has played since she began this summer farewell tour (even if she won’t call it that), her belief that she can still contend at the highest levels of the tour has felt more real to her. In the last 24 hours, it has also led plenty of fans and chroniclers of tennis to take a look at Williams’s draw to try to figure out just how far she might be able to take all of this.
The journey continues in Round 2 with Anett Kontaveit, who is seeded No. 2, a position that her play the past months has not lived up to. Kontaveit, who won convincingly in the first round Monday, achieved that lofty perch with a run of success last fall. But she has struggled all year, especially since a bout with Covid-19 in the spring.
If Williams brings the magic of yesteryear once more and beats Kontaveit, she will essentially inherit her seeding, in a section of the draw that does not have much in the way of firepower. Her third round opponent could be Ajla Tomljanovich of Australia, who has never made it past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. Tomljanovich is scheduled to play Evgeniya Rodina of Russia in the second round on Wednesday night, at roughly same time Williams and Kontaveit play.
Barbora Krejcikova, a tricky Czech player who won the 2021 French Open but has battled injuries this year, or Leylah Fernandez, last year’s surprise U.S. Open finalist, could loom in the fourth round. Ons Jabeur, the creative Tunisian who came within a set of winning Wimbledon, might pose the biggest quarterfinal test.
A discussion about the potential opponent in the semifinals at this point is just silly. If Williams can get that far, she will have proven that she can beat anyone.
All of this is guesswork, though. Women’s tennis is wide open these days. A qualifier won this tournament last year, but the last two champions, Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu, both lost on Tuesday, as did the Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina. Williams could just as easily face players few have heard of in the coming days.
All she has to do first is knock off the No. 2 seed.
Source : NYtimes
