Serena Williams followed up her third round loss at Indian Wells with a first round loss to Indian Wells champ Naomi Osaka.
Serena Williams continued to struggle in her comeback after giving birth last September. She lost to her older sister, Venus, in the third round of Indian Wells just last week, and suffered only the fourth first-round loss of her career on Wednesday. In fairness, the loss came at the hands of one of the next generation sensations on the women’s tour, Naomi Osaka, who won the women’s final at Indian Wells.
But therein lies the problem. During Serena’s absence an entire crop of women have emerged, while others, like Caroline Wozniacki, have rediscovered their best form. Although Serena still possesses the awesome power that has always intimidated her opponents, they’re now finding openings that just didn’t seem to exist before. The 23-time Grand Slam champion is still struggling with her movement and at one point let a crosscourt winner from Osaka fly past her with barely a fight.
Osaka is ranked No. 22 and is a major rising talent in the field. She also grew up idolizing Serena and was thrilled with the win over her tennis hero. Serena also congratulated her at the net afterwards, telling her she did a “good job.”
“She’s the main reason I started playing tennis,” Osaka said post-match. “I just wanted her after the match to know who I am.” It’s a good bet Serena does now.
Osaka talked about applying the same tactics from her idol.
“Sometimes when I’m in a really hard position when I’m serving, I’m like, ‘What would Serena do?'” Osaka said.
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It was an unusually tough draw for the former world No. 1. But with Serena’s lower ranking — and an unprotected ranking at the tournament — she had perhaps one of her biggest disappointments in a long time right at the start of the Miami Open, which she’s won eight times.
The loss must have been devastating since the tennis legend opted to be assessed a fine rather than show up for her mandatory post-match press conference.
Serena Williams is sure to be a competitive factor sometime this year once her fitness catches up with her talent. In the meantime, young players like Osaka are making the most of their opportunities. In addition to Williams, the Indian Wells champ recently beat Maria Sharapova, Karolina Pliskova, and world No. 1 Simona Halep. More big names will surely follow.