Venus Williams had a backhand volley into the open
court for match point.
She stumbled as she stepped into the shot, and the
ball bashed into the net. The 33-year-old American stood up slowly and
grimaced. After more than three hours, she didn't have one more point left.
Williams lost 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5) to 56th-ranked
Zheng Jie of China on a wet Wednesday at Flushing Meadows. It is the third year
in a row that the two-time champion is out of the U.S. Open after two rounds.
Williams has been slowed the past couple of years
by an autoimmune disease that saps energy. Much of this season, she has been
hampered by a bad back. And so the questions come about how much longer she'll
step onto the court.
''The last few months haven't been easy, coming
back from the back injury, one of the more challenging injuries I've dealt
with,'' she said. ''I feel like it's definitely affected my game, but I'm
working on it. I'm a fighter. Just like today, I didn't play my best, but I
tried as hard as I could. Tried not to get down.
''So I'll continue playing matches. For me it would
be awesome if I could play another match right away, but unfortunately I have
to wait weeks to play. That stops the momentum. Maybe this fall I'm going to
maybe enter consecutive tournaments, so even if I do have a bad match I can
hopefully play sooner so I can just get some rhythm.''
Williams acquitted herself well for stretches,
erasing deficits over and over again, until she simply ran out of solutions
against Zheng, a former top-15 player and twice a major semifinalist.
In what she took as an encouraging sign, Williams
was out there for 3 hours, 2 minutes, tying for the fifth-longest women's match
since 1970 at the U.S. Open. The third set alone lasted 1 1/2 hours.
''I was like, 'Wow, this is a marathon,''' Williams
said.
She wound up with 44 unforced errors in all, half
on forehands, in part because Zheng kept scrambling along the baseline to get
to balls and block them back, making Williams hit extra shots.
During her on-court interview, Zheng addressed the
partisan crowd that was raucously pulling for Williams in Louis Armstrong
Stadium, saying: ''First, I want to say, 'Sorry, guys.'''
Rain began falling in the early afternoon, jumbling
the schedule, and eight women's singles matches were postponed entirely,
including Williams' younger sister Serena against Galina Voskoboeva. More than
four hours of delays during the day meant 2012 champion Andy Murray did not
play his first point of the tournament until 9:55 p.m., making for the
third-latest start to a U.S. Open night session.
Men were playing in the first round, women in the
second. Murray's 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 victory over 49th-ranked Michael Llodra of
France began in Arthur Ashe Stadium only after 2009 champion Juan Martin del
Potro wrapped up a contentious 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (7) victory over
74th-ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain that stretched more than four
hours.
Murray, who last month became the first British man
in 77 years to win Wimbledon, needed only a little more than 1 1/2 hours to get
past Llodra, making just five unforced errors while compiling 34 winners.
A little past midnight, 33-year-old American James
Blake's career came to an end with a 6-7 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) loss
to 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. Blake, once ranked as high as No. 4 and a
three-time major quarterfinalist, announced Monday that the U.S. Open would be
his last professional tournament.
''I don't know when it's going to hit me,'' he
said. ''I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight.''
No. 17 Kevin Anderson of South Africa, No. 20
Andreas Seppi of Italy, No. 21 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 2001 U.S. Open champ
Lleyton Hewitt and 109th-ranked American wild-card entry Tim Smyczek were among
the day's winners. But No. 16 Fabio Fognini, No. 24 Benoit Paire and No. 29
Jurgen Melzer lost, meaning 10 of the 32 seeded men bowed out in the first
round.
The last match of the long day began in Ashe
shortly before midnight, and it was over before 1 a.m., because 15th-seeded
American Sloane Stephens needed only 58 minutes to beat 38th-ranked Urszula
Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-1.
''Before the match, I was like, 'Man, normally I
would be sleeping at this time,'' said Stephens, who will play No. 23 Jamie
Hampton in an all-American matchup in the third round.
Radwanska's older sister, 2012 Wimbledon runner-up
Agnieszka, was among the women who won earlier, along with 2011 French Open
champion Li Na, and No. 30 Laura Robson of Britain. Robson beat Li last year in
New York, and now they'll have a rematch.
Venus Williams and Zheng played all of two points
before being interrupted by showers. When they resumed two hours later,
Williams kept making mistakes.
''I couldn't pray a ball in,'' she said.
But in the second set, Williams looked more like
someone who won the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001, and five Wimbledon titles.
Zheng led 4-1 in the tiebreaker, before Williams
made one last stand. But at 5-all, Williams missed that volley.
''I should have made the shot,'' Williams said. ''I
was just rushing.''
Zheng then converted the match point.
As Williams pointed out more than once during her
news conference, there's still doubles to play with her sister.
The older Williams hasn't been ranked in the top 10
in 2 1/2 years. The last time she made it beyond the third round at a major
tournament was a fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon in 2011.
At the 2011 U.S. Open, Williams withdrew before her
second-round match, announcing she had Sjogren's syndrome, an illness that
causes joint pain and fatigue.
Two of her previous four trips to major tournaments
ended in the first round, including at the French Open in May. Because of her
back, Williams sat out Wimbledon for the only time in her career in June.
But she is not ready to say goodbye.
source yahoo
twitter @aderonkeW
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