Serena Williams 6-7 (7-9), 6-2, 6-4 Christina McHale
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| Photo by AP |
McHale made the first breakthrough in her 3rd meeting with Serena Williams, who is usually known for her slow starts to her matches. McHale managed to carve out a very tough hold of service to consolidate her hard-earned break, prevailing in the 15 minutes game to lead 2-0. Williams almost gave another break away, but McHale could not convert on her break point opportunities after losing it with a forehand unforced error. McHale kept her nose in front in the scoreboard as she managed to hold her service again, keeping Williams at bay with her strong forehands. Williams was once again in deep trouble in her service game, gifting break point opportunities to McHale. However, McHale once again failed to capitalise on those opportunities. This gave Williams to chance to hold her serve and keep herself in the set and minimize McHale’s lead. Had McHale converted all her break point opportunities, she would have been 5-0 up by now. McHale showed nerves of steel when she held her serve despite being 0-40 down, proving why she was ranked in the Top 30 previously and lead 4-2 in the first set. Williams got her 1st comfortable hold of service of the day in the next game, holding her serve to love. Williams finally broke back when she hit some strong returns to level the match at 4-4 and give herself a better chance to win the set. Williams held her serve to love for the 2nd consecutive time, to win her 3rd straight game from 2-4 down. Saving a set point while serving to stay in the set, McHale managed to extend the set to 5-5 after she maintained her composure to hold her service. After an exchange of service holds, the set was taken to a tiebreak to decide the winner of the set. Williams led 5-3 in the tiebreak after McHale was consistently overpowered by Williams’ strong forehands, but McHale managed to force 3 errors out of Williams to lead 6-5 and earn a well-deserved set point. McHale was only able to convert her 3rd set point at 8-7, to win the set 7-6 after more than 1 hour of well-played tennis by both players.
After both
players held their opening service game in the 2nd set, the first
break of the set went to Williams after she produced some excellent returns. She
then went on a roll, winning the next 3 games to have a double break lead and
just be a game from winning the 2nd set to make an instant comeback
just within a blink of an eye. McHale stopped the rout with a consolation hold
of service as she would lose the set 6-2 in the next game after Williams held
her service, but not without any problems as McHale managed to get to deuce.
McHale had
an encouraging start to the final set, after holding her serve to start the set
with. 2 unforced errors then costed Williams as McHale managed to break
immediately and go up a break in the final set. Having 2 game points for a 3-0
lead, McHale threw in 2 double faults and lost the crucial opportunity to
consolidate the break and get her nose in front in the scoreline. This time,
Williams managed to hold her serve comfortably to love and level the match at
2-2. A marathon 15 point game on McHale’s serve was then won by McHale, saving
3 break points and coming from 0-40 down to let the final set remain on serve.
2 aces then helped Williams in her process of holding her serve once and keep
the set level at 3-3. Another marathon game which consisted of 13 points once
again went into the favour of McHale, saving another break point in the
process, to hold her serve and lead 4-3. Williams went on fire after that game,
winning 3 straight games to win the final set 6-4 and the hard-fought match in
3 sets after a thrilling 2 hours and 29 minutes.
Williams
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McHale
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Aces
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14
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3
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DFs
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6
|
7
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1st Serve
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61%
|
65%
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1st Serve Won
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74%
|
67%
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2nd Serve Won
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54%
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34%
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Break Points
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5/19
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2/5
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Net Points
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24/34
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9/11
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Winners
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54
|
16
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Unforced Errors
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40
|
18
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Points Won
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127
|
108
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