Yesterday Serena Williams had one of the strangest tennis matches of her long career. In the previous round, she had outplayed her sister Venus in a 6-1, 6-2 victory that could only ever be described as bittersweet for her. Kaia Kanepi posed a very different type of opposition. Whilst Serena has practiced with her sister since they first picked up tennis racquets, Serena had only met Kanepi five times before and had won all five.
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Williams had beat Kanepi in their five previous matches
The circumstances of this match were different to before, with Williams’ world ranking down at 26 going into the match. If Kanepi was ever going to beat the 23-time Grand Slam winner then surely it had to be now. As the first set unfolded, the idea of Kanepi getting anything out of the match seemed near impossible as Serena blew her away. It took Serena just 18 minutes to win the set 6-0 and if anything, Kanepi fans will have been hoping that she could just prevent another 6-0 to save some dignity.
The next set was like a completely different match between two different players. The Serena Williams of Set 1 vanished and in her place was a nervous, unsteady player that struggled to move around the court to return shots. Kanepi looked dangerous and then Williams’ showed uncharacteristic nerves to double fault and concede the set 4-6.
Third set was a close affair
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The fans really did not know what to expect from the next set and the players probably didn’t either. Could Williams summon her inner warrior and get to the quarterfinals? Her serving was of superior quality, as she racked up a serve at 118 mph but it was not enough to win the last set comfortably. Kanepi pushed her to the extreme and even at 5-3 the match could go either way. Serena held her nerve and finished 6-3 to round off a match that she was really made to work for in the end.
Next match for Serena Williams
Next up, Serena will play Karolina Pliskova who is the 8th seed. This match is likely to be a huge test for Serena as she bids to win her 7th US Open title.