The Australian Open and Wimbledon champion defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6(6), 7-5 in her first match in the Maroon Group and could regain the world number one spot from Dinara Safina this week.
One more match Williams wants to win than Safina to overtake. This year the Russian has a point to prove after failing to win any of her round robin matches last year and coming under fierce criticism throughout 2009 for her inability to win a grand slam title so far despite being world number one.
When asked about her chances of overtaking Safina this week, Williams said, “It would be awesome but I'm in a tough part of the section of the draw, so we'll look what happens."
It is indeed a tough group and Serena will now need to beat either her sister or arch-rival Elena Dementieva to reach the semi-finals. Serena has had some classic battles with Dementieva this year, winning a memorable Wimbledon semi-final.
It’s been an incredibly successful year for Serena but unfortunately it will probably be defined by her now infamous antics in the US Open semi-finals against Kim Clijsters.
The incident was broadcast live around the world and the watching public were able to hear the full explicit rant thanks to the many courtside microphones. It will probably continue to dog Serena for a while and she was questioned again on it after her match in Doha.
“It was out of character and I really regret it,” she told the Times. “I am a passionate person and I just lost it because it was an iffy call at a key moment. I wrote the line judge a really long letter of apology and she understood.”
One more match Williams wants to win than Safina to overtake. This year the Russian has a point to prove after failing to win any of her round robin matches last year and coming under fierce criticism throughout 2009 for her inability to win a grand slam title so far despite being world number one.
When asked about her chances of overtaking Safina this week, Williams said, “It would be awesome but I'm in a tough part of the section of the draw, so we'll look what happens."
It is indeed a tough group and Serena will now need to beat either her sister or arch-rival Elena Dementieva to reach the semi-finals. Serena has had some classic battles with Dementieva this year, winning a memorable Wimbledon semi-final.
It’s been an incredibly successful year for Serena but unfortunately it will probably be defined by her now infamous antics in the US Open semi-finals against Kim Clijsters.
The incident was broadcast live around the world and the watching public were able to hear the full explicit rant thanks to the many courtside microphones. It will probably continue to dog Serena for a while and she was questioned again on it after her match in Doha.
“It was out of character and I really regret it,” she told the Times. “I am a passionate person and I just lost it because it was an iffy call at a key moment. I wrote the line judge a really long letter of apology and she understood.”
