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Analysis of Women's Serving Problems

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Analysis of Women's Serving Problems

NEW YORK -- Serena Williams joined her sister in the U.S. Open's third round with a dominating victory.

The second-seeded Serena was pretty close to perfect in beating 51st-ranked Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour Wednesday night.

Serena is seeking her fourth U.S. Open championship and 12th Grand Slam singles title overall. The American is trying to become the first woman to win consecutive titles at Flushing Meadows since older sister Venus in 2000-01.

The siblings could play each other in the semifinals. Third-seeded Venus Williams won earlier Wednesday, eliminating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-4, 6-2.

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Al Bello/Getty ImagesVania King, ranked 114th, advanced to the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time.

Former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters also won, continuing her impressive Grand Slam comeback with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory over French 14th seed Marion Bartoli in the second round.

Serena played Czink at a hard-court tournament in California in July, and things were much more competitive until Serena eventually prevailed 6-3, 7-6 (7).

Why was Wednesday's encounter so different?

"I definitely made adjustments," Serena said. "I knew her game better today."

Czink simply couldn't handle Serena's power, like a baseball hitter whose swing is too slow to get around on a fastball and keeps fouling off pitches.

That was illustrated on consecutive points early in the second set: First, one ball flew wildly off Czink's racket and soared wide and high, so off-track and so hard that it smacked the scorekeeping gizmo off the chair umpire's stand. Next, another ball went directly sideways, nearly into the noggin of a line judge.

Serena finished with an impressive ratio of 25 winners to only nine unforced errors.

About the only glitch for Serena came midway through the first set, when she thought she had pounded an ace. Instead, the serve was waved off by a line judge, who called a foot-fault.

Serena turned and glared, setting her hands on her hips. She just stood there with a straight face for a few seconds, staring down the official. When play resumed, she pushed a forehand into the net and then again sent a serious look in his direction.

And on the following point, Serena smacked an ace at 115 mph and looked over once more, as though to say, "Was my foot in the right place that time?!"

"I was kind of frustrated because I hit a great serve, best serve I hit in months. Yeah, I was just like, 'Ugh!'" she said.

Asked about the staredown, she said: "They do play that song, 'Straight out of Compton,' when I walk out."

Venus had a far easier match Wednesday than she did in the first round, when she stopped after three games to have a trainer place a wrap below her left knee and then needed three sets to beat Vera Dushevina.

"I'm still playing well and I feel I'll continue to play better as the rounds go on," she said. "I'm trying not to make this injury a factor at all."

Against Mattek-Sands, Venus stepped out on court wearing heavy bandaging above and below her knee. It was similar to the tape job the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion wore at Wimbledon, where she reached the final before losing to her younger sister Serena.

If she was still in pain in the second round, her opponent couldn't tell.

"She was moving like a cat," Mattek-Sands said.

Venus said she had no plans to pull out of doubles with her sister, where they are trying to add the U.S. Open to their Australian and Wimbledon titles this year.

"My mentality for doubles is, it's a major title and I love winning majors," she said. "It's not a decision I take lightly. I'm going to do my best to be able to prepare."

The Williamses are scheduled to team up Thursday in the first round of doubles, taking on Julia Goerges and Arantxa Parra Santonja. Serena said she hadn't had a chance to speak to Venus about whether they would stay in the doubles event but figured they would play.

Clijsters, in just her third event since returning to the tour after two years away, hit back superbly to roll through the second and third sets for victory in 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Clijsters had beaten Bartoli in the first match of her comeback last month but the former Wimbledon runner-up took the attack to the Belgian and snatched the first set.

But Clijsters, who gave birth to her first child just 18 months ago, wore down her opponent with relentless groundstrokes to set up a clash with another Belgian, Kirsten Flipkens.

"Especially at the start of the tournament, you don't focus on eventually winning the tournament," Clijsters said. "My next match is against Kirsten Flipkens, which is going to be tough. That's all I'm going to focus on right now. I don't want to think too far ahead."

In her first two events back, Clijsters beat four top-20 players, including French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

But though her return has been impressive -- reaching the quarterfinals on both occasions -- the 26-year-old knows there are bigger hurdles to overcome.

"It was a nice feeling to have in Cincinnati and Toronto, knowing that I was capable of beating some of those top-10 players again," she said. "So after those two tournaments, it was like, 'OK, I can beat those girls if I play well.'

"But I haven't played the big ones yet, Venus, Serena, [Maria] Sharapova, [Elena] Dementieva. I haven't played those girls yet. Hopefully I'll give myself a shot at doing that here," she said.

Clijsters did play both world No. 1 Dinara Safina and No. 5 Jelena Jankovic, in Cincinnati and Toronto, respectively.

Earlier Wednesday, two-time Grand Slam tournament winner Amelie Mauresmo was ousted in a 6-4, 6-0 loss to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in the second round.

The 17th-seeded Mauresmo made 31 unforced errors Wednesday and hit only nine winners. The 2006 Wimbledon and Australian Open champion from France joined Ana Ivanovic as the second Grand Slam tournament winner to be eliminated in the first week.

"The thing I don't want to do is make the decision to stop and then after two, six, eight months think, it was not quite the time yet," Mauresmo said. "Because then it's too hard, I would say, probably to make a comeback as Kim is making now, given the age."

Wozniak is a Canadian making her third appearance at the U.S. Open. She will next play 10th-seeded Flavia Pennetta, who beat Sania Mirza 6-0, 6-0 -- the first double-bagel of this year's tournament.

Wild-card entry Vania King of the United States upset No. 15 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia in the second round.

The 114th-ranked King won 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time. Stosur reached the semifinals at the French Open this year.

Other seeded women sent home included No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 20 Anabel Medina Garrigues. Winners included No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 8 Victoria Azarenka, No. 18 Li Na and No. 31 Elena Vesnina.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.