Notes from French Open 2013

Serena Williams

A 2^nd French Open triumph for the ‘Tennis Goddess’ after 2002, ending an 11-year wait to once again lift the Suzanne Lenglen trophy. A 16th Grand Slam title that puts her 2 short of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Serena at her best is the best player in the women’s game – period. It does not matter what the surface or who the opponent is; if Serena is zoned in and focused, there are very few players who can beat her. She raced through the opening rounds, hardly breaking a sweat and her sternest test came against former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals.

Kuznetsova managed to stretch Williams to a third set where the champion displayed great fight to come back from a break down and secure her passage into the semi-finals. She won the final in straight sets, but the score line does not do justice to the effort put in by last year’s champion Maria Sharapova. The Russian came out headstrong and played a very good game; however Serena was able to take her own game up a notch to respond to the challenge and wrest the trophy from Sharapova.