Serena Williams arrived on court at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night to great fanfare and a raucous crowd. Williams’ quest for the year’s grand slam — and a fourth straight US Open title — was set to begin and everyone was ready for a celebration and a little excitement.
The electric atmosphere was taken out of the crowd quickly as her opponent, Vitalia Diatchenko, unfortunately came into the match with a lingering Achilles injury and provided little more than a 30-minute warmup for Williams, who was leading 6-0, 2-0 when the match was stopped.
In the eight games they did play, Williams was dominant as expected. She won 32 of the 37 points played in the match, hitting 12 winners and six aces. Diatchenko, who was clearly struggling to move in the match, was unable to deal with Williams’ power and had zero winners and 14 unforced errors.
Williams offered Diatchenko some nice words of encouragement after the match and applauded her effort to try and play despite her injury. Williams now moves on to the second round to face Kiki Bertens on Wednesday.
The electric atmosphere was taken out of the crowd quickly as her opponent, Vitalia Diatchenko, unfortunately came into the match with a lingering Achilles injury and provided little more than a 30-minute warmup for Williams, who was leading 6-0, 2-0 when the match was stopped.
In the eight games they did play, Williams was dominant as expected. She won 32 of the 37 points played in the match, hitting 12 winners and six aces. Diatchenko, who was clearly struggling to move in the match, was unable to deal with Williams’ power and had zero winners and 14 unforced errors.
Williams offered Diatchenko some nice words of encouragement after the match and applauded her effort to try and play despite her injury. Williams now moves on to the second round to face Kiki Bertens on Wednesday.
