Zarina Diyas had an impressive start to her night but couldn’t pull off a big defeat at the BNP Paribas Open Thursday night. Serena Williams in her return to the sport got the straight sets win winning 7-5, 6-3 on Stadium One at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The two met twice and once at Indian Wells three years ago where the former world number one had the Kazak beaten and did it again in Miami in 2016. Williams had been out of the sport for some time dealing with the birth of her daughter and injuries. The pressure was on her to perform well despite being away from the competition for some time. Diyas proved herself worthy staying active on the WTA Tour and put in a lot of work to prepare for her first night match in the desert on the biggest stage.
Diyas gained a footing with William’s return not working out right away. The former world number one rallied back to deuce but the second serve did not work leading to Diyas holding her opening serve. Williams followed suit with the hard hits taking the Kazak out of trying for the break. Diyas began to rely on Williams missing every now and then giving her another successful hold. They went four games on the path until Williams turned the tables with forced errors by Diyas to create the first break chance. The 24-year-old battled back to deuce where after three breaks she managed to hold serve once more.
Seven games went into the books with neither player giving up their ground to the other. When Diyas achieved her hold in the seventh, her coach Antonini Roberto came out on court to give her pointers on how to how to get her opponent out of her comfort zone, challenge her physically and do work on her own second serve. She followed the advice and used her aggression and control to maintain her grip on the set pressuring Williams to follow along. With the end of the first fast approaching, the 36-year-old found herself in trouble but held with two winners that sent the two into extra frames.
The first break went to Williams who gained an edge in the 11th giving her a shot at ending the set in her favor. She began with a 116mph serve that gave her her third ace of the match before opening three set points. She handed Diyas one on a double fault and watched as the Kazak landed a winner away from the American. She gave herself a shot at holding with a three-shot rally that gave her the lead after 50 minutes. Williams maintained the offense above 70 percent that carried along her struggling return that Diyas had beaten for a time. Despite her attempts, the 24-year-old would try to force the night to go long and fight on.
The second break started with breaks that went three games with Diyas not in control. She took another pep talk with Roberto that led to her being able to break the American superstar. Diyas overcame a 0-40 deficit to force deuce with the former number one. After a few breaks, a double fault from the Kazak ended her fight back to gain a hold handing Williams the lead after five.
She remained out front through seven where Williams put down the win in the eighth on serve. She landed her fourth ace which was shown to be on the line giving Diyas very little opportunities to battle back. She served to stay alive in the match but the unforced errors gave Williams her shot at match point. It ended in a seven-shot rally with Diyas firing one wide of the side line that closed the set out n 1 hour and 33 minutes. She’ll face Kiki Bertens in the second round that will take place Saturday night.
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