Just about everything that could happen here at this year’s French Open has happened now after Serena Williams reached the fourth round, despite a small fire by her player box and a power outage that meant most of the world missed the conclusion of her match.
The fire was quickly put out by Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena’s coach, a rather obvious but fitting metaphor for what the American had to do to see off Kristina Mladenovic in front of her home crowd.
The pair had been delayed just before the second-set tie-break but though Williams trailed 5-2 she recovered to win it 12-10, on her fifth match point, and promptly celebrated like she had won the whole thing.
The defending champion made 31 unforced errors as she pressed too much, perhaps trying to get the match done before the rains came.
When they did, it was torrential and the players were forced off for more than two and a half hours before returning, with TV stations affected by a power outage in the broadcast compound.
Williams was just glad to get through on a day when Mladenovic, who had one set point, made life difficult throughout.
“I think she played well [but] I feel like I made a tremendous [number] of errors,” Williams said. “I was a little too defensive. And when you’re defensive, then you don’t usually get off to that quick start.
“[In the tiebreak], I just made it a point to play my game. Up until that point I had not been playing my game. It’s not me. I just wanted to be Serena out there.”
Williams might have one or two flashbacks when she plays her fourth-round match tomorrow against Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who beat former champion Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4 yesterday.
Seeded 18th, the 21-year-old is coached now by the four-time French Open champion and former world No 1 Justine Henin.
Williams and Henin have had their run-ins over the years, most notably here in 2003 when the Belgian, trailing 4-2, 30-0 in the final set, raised her hand because she wasn’t ready. The American duly served into the net but expected a let to be played, only for Henin to say nothing after the umpire had missed the incident.
Thirteen years on, it is all a distant memory and Williams said she would be focusing only on Svitolina.
“It really doesn’t matter,” she said. “It’s just really about going out there and playing your best. That’s really all I can do right now.
“Obviously she’s a great player, and she knows how to play well. She knows how to just play on the big scenes, as well. Having this match is definitely going to be able to help me out going for it.”
Venus Williams continued her best French Open for six years as she moved into the fourth round with a 7-6, 1-6, 6-0 win over France’s Alize Cornet.
The 35-year-old Williams was given a warning for coaching at one point – apparently the first she has ever received – but stormed through the third set and now plays Timea Bacsinsky of Switzerland, a semi-finalist last year.
Bacsinsky, who took out another Frenchwoman, Pauline Parmentier, 6-4, 6-2, has lived in the shadows of Roger Federer and the defending men’s champion, Stan Wawrinka.
But the 26-year-old, who almost quit the sport a couple of years ago and only entered last year’s event on a whim before reaching the semi-finals, said she was happy with not being centre of attention.
“What I expect is not to be in the spotlight,” she said. “To be in the spotlights, you have to deserve it.
“I’ll never think, OK, why are they talking more about Stan and Rog when I’ve just won a match? Look at all the titles they have. I have perhaps something like 10 percent of Rog’s titles or wins.
“If you want people to talk more about yourself, play better. Be better. You know, you can’t expect anything else.”
“If people talk about me, that’s good. If nobody talks about me, I think in French we say, to live happily you have to live in the dark. That’s good for me. I don’t want to always be in the spotlight.”
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