Williams paired with Ons Jabeur to win the first round of the doubles at Rothesay International on Tuesday, beating Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo 2-6, 6-3. [13-11]. Williams and Jabeur saved a match point in the tie break of the match. “Surprise everyone”: Players react to Serena Williams’ upcoming comeback “It was so much fun playing with Ons,” Williams said on the floor after the victory. “It was great, we had a lot of fun and our opponents played great! We were just trying to stay there after the first set.” “It was so much fun,” Jabeur told the court. “I was a little nervous before, playing with such a legend, but he did me a lot of good on the pitch, and even when I made mistakes, he kept encouraging me.” Welcome back: The victory marked an exciting comeback for Williams, who holds the Open Era record with 23 Grand Slam titles and 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. Williams had not played on tour since being injured in her first round duel at Wimbledon last year. ‘Ready for Round 2’: Wozniacki is expecting a second child But she and Jabeur got a wild card in this week’s doubles draw and Williams was able to return to action with determination. It was Williams’s first doubles match since she and retired Caroline Wozniacki reached the Auckland doubles final in January 2020. Highlights: Buzkova and Soribes Tormo, who worked together to win the doubles title in Istanbul earlier this season, were the strongest pair in the first. A Sorribes Tormo volleyball completed the first set where she and Bouzkova’s nine winners outscored four Jabeur and Williams. But Williams found its rhythm in the second set and took out a series of winners to put itself and Jabeur ahead 5-3. At 30-30 in that game, a Williams pass winner, followed by a shout of pleasure from the American, lined up on a set point, which Williams converted to an ace. “I caught fire behind me, so it was good, I needed it,” Williams said on the pitch for the second set wave. In the tie-break match, Williams and Jumper saw two 9-8 and 10-9 points disappear and Buzkova and Sorribes Tormo had their own match point at 11-10. But a Jabeur rally winner set up a third match point for the Wilds at 12-11, which he took after a wide volley from the Sorribes Tormo. After 1 hour and 33 minutes of exciting action, Williams and Jabeur, who played their first event together, snatched the victory to line up a second-round clash with Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching. “I take it literally once a day,” Williams told a post-match press conference when asked about her next plans. “I really spent my time with my back injury, so I don’t make many decisions after that. I definitely felt good out there talking to Ons in the first set and I said, ‘We’re not playing badly, they played really well in this set.’ But obviously winning and getting more balls and playing a little more made us we feel much better and we certainly felt reassuring, like, okay, it clicks in practice and now it looks like it clicks “.
Burrage shocks Badosa
While Williams and Jumper were winning at Center Court, a hope for the homeland had impressed at Stadium 1. No. 169 in the world, Jodi Baraj of Great Britain overtook No. 1 Paula Badosa of Spain 6-4, 6 -3 to claim a place in the Simple Round of 16. Wildcard Burrage had only played one previous match against a Top 50 player, which they lost two weeks ago to Zhang Shuai in Nottingham. However, the 23-year-old Brit surpassed No. 4 in the Badosa world in just 1 hour and 13 minutes to record her first victory in the Top 10 on Tuesday. Burrage earned 80 percent of its first-point points to maintain control of the meeting. The Brit converted four of her 13 break points, while serving only once all day. Another tough test awaits Burrage, as they will now face Beatriz Haddad Maia No. 15 in the third round. Haddad Maia is currently on a 11-game winning streak, having won consecutive Nottingham and Birmingham turf titles.
