World number 60 Venus Williams avenged her loss to Kirsten Flipkens in Toronto three weeks ago by defeating the Belgian in the first round of the US Open 2013 Tennis Championships on Monday.
At the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Williams led 6-0 in the first set but things turned around in the second and third set which allowed Flipkens to comeback and win 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 in that match. A similar scenario happened in New York but this time, Venus Williams managed to close the match with a score of 6-1, 6-2.
“In Toronto I started out really strong and it didn’t end up as well as I would have liked,” Williams said. “But my serve was a lot better today. In Toronto I wasn’t really feeling that great about my serve. Honestly, I think that made a huge difference. I think I was serving in the 40 percentages in all of my matches this summer, so it was very challenging – but you can only go up. I’ve worked on it a lot.
“I just kind of held on to that second set. She played some competitive games and dug out some points you kind of think are going to go your way – that shows why she’s been playing so well this year,” she added.
Williams said that despite her health issues, she believes that she can still win matches and it is an indication with her victory over the tournament’s 14th seed.
“I stay positive because I know I can play great tennis. Sometimes you just have to go through more than what you want to go through. Sometimes you have to have losses. When I have losses, it always motivates me a lot to do better and to work harder. I realize I haven’t had a lot of chances to play healthy this year, and I’ve had injuries and what have you, so I’m just going to have to keep working my way into it, maybe more than some of the other players, but I know I can do that. That’s what it is,” the two-time US Open champion said.
Up next for Williams is China’s Zheng Jie who defeated Kiki Bertens of Netherlands. The American won their only lone encounter, but that was way back in 2004 at Miami.
