May 5, 2009

Not a "best-in-the-world" performance



ROME (AP)—A day after insisting she was still the best player in the world despite falling from No. 1 in the rankings, Serena Williams lost to Patty Schnyder in her first match at the Italian Open. Williams appeared to be moving with difficulty at times during her 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 loss on the clay at the Foro Italico. “We all know who the real No. 1 is,” Williams said Monday. “Quite frankly, I’m the best in the world.”

The 23-year-old Safina, who lost to Serena in the Australian Open final, said Williams is entitled to claim to be the real No. 1 because she has won 10 Grand Slam titles. “But she’s also older than me, so she has more experience than me,” Safina said. “So let’s see when I’m her age how many titles I’m going to have, and then we can say.” Williams was broken twice in the first set, which wrapped up in less than half an hour for the 30-year-old Swiss. She came back in the second set but went down 5-0 in the third. This was the first clay-court event of the season for Williams, the 2002 champion here. Schnyder, currently ranked 20th, had won both their previous matches on clay.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm really mad at serena. She is allbusy with het serena signature statement collection, and now she has lost three consecutive matches!
I'm in doubt about the french, and if she has trained enough over the last few weeks.
love!
from a really sad and disappointed dutch fan!

Anonymous said...

This is bad timing considering what she said. She's still correct, though. And the ranking system is still awful. Anyway, I think Serena will pull it together...maybe get some more practice in on the clay so that her knee/leg can adjust.

Anonymous said...

dutch fan, just relax. serena is not 100%, but she is still going out there and competing. serena will turn it around.