Serena Williams was flustered when she got called for taking too much time between points, flung away her racket after letting a lead slip away and finished surprisingly meekly in a 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-1 loss to Maria Sakkari at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday.
This was Serena’s fifth match since professional tennis resumed amid the coronavirus pandemic after a hiatus of nearly six months — and all five have gone three sets. She is 3-2 in that stretch.
Serena was seemingly in control early, serving for the first set at 5-3, 30-0, when things began to unravel.
She missed two backhands in a row, put a forehand into the net to face a break point, and walked over to the stand holding her towel at the back of the court (the ball people normally handle towels for players, but not during COVID-19).
That’s when chair umpire Aurelie Tourte called a time-violation. On the following point, Serena sent a forehand long to get broken and went on to lose.
At the ensuing changeover, the 23-time Grand Slam champion argued with Tourte, saying: I mean, I’m getting my own towels. That’s not fair.
“You should tell me on the sidelines next time if I need to play faster. Believe me, I will. You didn’t even give me a warning,” Serena told chair umpire Aurelie Tourte, clearly not happy with his decision to call a time-violation.
While Serena eventually did grab that set, she again frittered away a 5-3 lead in the second, plus a 4-1 edge in the tiebreaker. She came out flat in the third set, as if she’d rather be anywhere else. She double-faulted four times in the second game, including on Sakkari’s eighth break chance, to make it 2-0 and that was pretty much that.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic’s neck felt much better, and his tennis too, in a 6-2, 6-4 victory over unseeded American Tennys Sandgren that improved his record to 20-0 in 2020.
“Actually, I’m pleasantly surprised with the way I recovered and felt today — just overall, physically, but also with the neck, specifically, because that was a little bit of a concern, said Djokovic, who will be eyeing his 18th Grand Slam title when the U.S. Open begins next week.
Djokovic will face 34th-ranked Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals. The other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw will be defending champion Daniil Medvedev against No. 8 seed Roberto Bautista Agut.
The No. 3-seeded Medvedev’s 2019 title at the Western & Southern Open was part of a stretch in which he reached the finals at six consecutive tournaments, including a runner-up finish to Rafael Nadal at the U.S. Open.
Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 American who is ranked 39th, delivered 19 aces and knocked off 2019 U.S. Open semifinalist Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (4). Opelka next meets No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, whose 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) win over No. 16 John Isner was interrupted by a rain delay of nearly 1 1/2 hours late in the first set.
Also interrupted by the weather was three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray’s 6-2, 6-2 loss to 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic, who has held all 29 games he’s served so far in the tournament.
Important results (third round): Men: Daniil Medvedev bt Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-3; Roberto Bautista bt Karen Khachanov 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Novak Djokovic bt Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-4; Stefanos Tsitsipas bt John Isner 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4); Milos Raonic bt Andy Murray 6-2, 6-2.
Women: Maria Sakkari bt Serena Williams 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-1; Elise Mertens bt Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, 6-3; Naomi Osaka bt Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-1; Victoria Azarenka bt Alize Cornet 6-4, 7-5.