Serena Williams joked that she lost her voice from yelling too many “come ons” during her win over Ana Ivanovic, and it was that kind of intensity from both players that served as a fitting kick-off for the first of five WTA Finals to be held in Singapore.
Entering the match coming off a knee injury, and having just started practicing a week ago, Williams was pleased to dispatch Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4, in the opening match of the Red Group on Monday.
“I felt the knee a little bit, but compared to what it was in Beijing, it feels so much better,” the top seed revealed after her 78-minute win.
The world No1 registered her 16th consecutive victory at the season-ending championships, having won the title on her last three participations.
In front of a sellout crowd, both Williams and Ivanovic provided an entertaining affair, the American with her famous splits and the Serb with her animated fist pumps.
“Playing against Ana, she's incredibly intense and I'm incredibly intense,” said Williams. “She's a really good player and plays really fast and strong and hard and she just does everything so well.
“So you got to get serious from the first point or she can win really fast.”
The pair were playing for a fifth time this season, with Williams winning three of their four meetings heading into the match but Ivanovic is the only one of the finalists to have posted a victory over the American this season.
Ivanovic has won the most matches in the WTA this year, amassing a whopping 56 victories with no one coming even close to her tally (Carla Suarez Navarro is second on the list with 49).
Williams had to rely on her serve early on, saving to break points in her opening game.
But it was the American who got the first break of the match. Ivanovic’s serve bailed on her in the fourth game and she double-faulted to gift Williams two break points. The top seed only needed one, as she broke for 3-1 with a huge return.
The margin between Ivanovic’s A-game and her meltdown mode was miniscule. She appeared to be more in control in the early games but suddenly found herself 1-4 down due to some poor serving.
The double faults continued to haunt her in game six but she held on. The world No7 produced some brilliant shots, including a volley winner that sent the crowds into a frenzy as she broke Williams to love to cut the gap to 3-4 and she soon drew level as her forehand sent Williams into an acrobatic split.
In game nine, Ivanovic hit a cross court forehand winner to get break point and she almost broke but her volley was just long. That error saved Williams, who went on to hold with a 190km/hr serve.
“That was a huge point, I think, but it was actually quite a hard volley,” Ivanovic said of that missed volley. “The ball was dropping fast. I didn't come in fast enough. It was just a bit unlucky.”
The ball toss deserted Ivanovic in game 10 and two double-faults – one on set point – handed over the set to Williams.
Ivanovic started strong in the second set, breaking the Williams serve in the opening game but the American broke right back.
The match remained on serve up until 5-4 but just like the first set, Ivanovic lost the 10th game, getting broken to 15 to lose the match.
“Definitely very disappointed that both sets I made few easy errors in the last service game,” said Ivanovic. “I felt I created lots of chancing, especially off the ground. But the serve made a big difference today.”
Later on centre court, in the battle of the Finals debutantes, Simona Halep poured misery on Eugenie Bouchard, who rose to a career-high No5 ranking yesterday, by defeating the 20-year-old Canadian 6-2, 6-3 in 68 minutes.
Bouchard hit a shocking 30 unforced errors to just 13 winners.
The Wimbledon finalist, who hasn’t played a match since finishing runner-up at Wuhan over three weeks ago, blamed rustiness on her poor performance.
“Today there was definitely a lack of consistency,” said Bouchard.
“It's unfortunate. I think it's something you kind of get when you haven't played a competitive match since like Wuhan. I didn't feel match sharp. But I feel like I can build on this. I still have another match, even though I lost, so there is a positive.”
The Wimbledon finalist, who hasn’t played a match since finishing runner-up at Wuhan over three weeks ago, blamed rustiness on her poor performance.
“Today there was definitely a lack of consistency,” said Bouchard.
“It's unfortunate. I think it's something you kind of get when you haven't played a competitive match since like Wuhan. I didn't feel match sharp. But I feel like I can build on this. I still have another match, even though I lost, so there is a positive.”
