Olympia Ohanian turned three years of age Tuesday. Her mom needed to work, placing in an evening shift in Arthur Ashe Stadium. It got off to a sketchy beginning, however when it was finished, the world’s most decorated tennis mother observed Olympia similarly as she trusted she would, with a first-round victory in the U.S. Open against individual American Kristie Ahn.
Williams, the No. 3 seed and a 23-time Grand Slam champion, has been on a quest to win No. 24, which would attach her with Margaret Court, since before Olympia was born. She took the first step with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Ahn, 28, the world’s No. 96 player, who hung with Williams splendidly on occasion in their first-since forever meeting, in any event, pushing her around to some degree and outwitting various backcourt rallies.
In any case, at that point the 38-year-old Williams raised her play, producing the outcome that you would expect between a player with 352 Grand Slam triumphs and an adversary with three.
“I was really happy with how I fought for every point, no matter how I was playing,” Williams said in the on-court interview.
Williams’ next adversary will be Margarita Gasparyan, a 117th-ranked Russian, who commended her 26th birthday celebration prior Tuesday with a 6-3, 6 (7-0), 6-0 victory over Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.
Ahn, who had a sparkling rushed to the fourth round here a year ago (the main significant triumphs in her vocation) demonstrated a lot of game for a great part of the match. Ahn broke Williams, proprietor of the most dreaded serve in the game, in the very first game of the match, because of a couple of double blames, and held for 2-0. She broke Williams again to begin the second set, moving Williams around and playing the steadier tennis. Everything came undone for Ahn in the fourth game of the second set, when up 40-15 and a point from a 3-1 lead, she double blamed and afterward overhit two forehands.
Williams held at love for 3-2, and afterward broke Ahn again at 15, shutting it with a snapping backhand champ down the line.
In her five earlier matches since the re-beginning of the tour in the pandemic, Williams went to three sets in a tough situation finishing things off.
“It’s been years. It’s been the ’90s since I won a match in straight sets,” Williams joked. “I love my job. At the end of the day, I love what I do. One of these days it’s going to end. I just love being out here.”
She was impressively more proficient against Ahn when she at last secured in the second set. When Williams pummeled her eleventh pro in transit to holding at affection for 5-2, you got the sense it was everything except over put something aside for the racket-tap over the net.
She passed Chris Evert with her 102nd singles succeed at Flushing Meadows.
