Serena Williams overcame a scare and was forced to grind out a win against Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus, to reach the Western and Southern Open third round in New York.
Williams needed to draw from all her experience and survival instincts to overcome Rus in a game that lasted almost 3 hours and ensured that she did not join them at the exit.
“I thought I played pretty well. I was being aggressive and hitting good shots. She just kept fighting. I don’t know, honestly,” says 38-year-old Williams.
“If I can do this, then whoa. I trained really hard. I was surprised I was tired, but it was really physical.”
Williams, however, put up anything far from a convincing display and appeared to struggle in the New York heat in the second set, failing to serve out victory at 5-3 in the deciding set.
Serena Williams, currently ranked ninth in the world, and will hope to secure a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title when the US Open starts on 31 August at Flushing Meadows.
It will be the first major since the professional tours resumed earlier this month, having been suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Western and Southern Open is usually held in Cincinnati but has been moved to Flushing Meadows to create a two-tournament safety bubble.
Williams seeded third, is the highest-ranked player left in the draw after Czech top seed Karolina Pliskova and American Sofia Kenin lost their opening matches.
She will play Greece’s 13th seed Maria Sakkari in the third round of the Southern & Western Open.
In other matchups, fourth seed Naomi Osaka of Japan beat Karolina Muchova 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-2.
