Career high for Virginie Razzano - Serena sent packing

If you have been watching Tennis for more than a decade now, you sure would have seen her stream-rolling past her opponents in grand style and winning title after title.  Age, state of health, surface, opponent – nothing mattered as Serena Williams would ruthlessly decimate her opponents – she has always won her 1^st round at all Grand Slam with ease and …….. ‘old order changeth’ – she suffered a shocking loss in the 1^st round to a 111 ranked player at a ground named after an early French aviator and fighter pilot of WW 1.  

Serena Jameka Williams  has occupied the No. 1 spot for long.  She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009.  She is the only female player to have won over $35 million in prize money.  She has  27 Grand Slam titles - 13 in singles, 12 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles.  Besides, she has also won  two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles

file photo of Serena

One of the most dominant players of modern era, she went down to the unheard 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano of France – in the match she came within two points of victory nine times, yet remarkably failed to close the deal.  The 23 minute final game with 30 points was most exciting but not the desired end for her fans. Razzano finally won after a marathon 3 hours and 3 minutes play.  Before this match, Serena had a clean 46 off 46 in the Opening rounds in Tennis top venues – so clinically routine that she would only win.  – and that was not to be this time, a stunning defeat of 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss to Razzano  at Roland Garros.

May be the fall has a lot to do with her state of health as she returned to action last year after missing about 10 months because of a series of health scares, including two foot operations.  The one who has always made news of winning has made news with shock exit for the first time in a Grandslam career extending from 1998 when she was just 16.    Maria Sharapova won 6-0, 6-0, and Rafael Nadal began his bid for a record seventh French Open championship with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Italian Simone Bolelli.   Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands, seeded 15th, were packed off 3-6, 6-4, 5-7 by the Russian-Romanian pair of Nina Bratchikova and Edina Gallovits-Hall in the opening round.

French Open, the premier clay court tournament  named after the famous French aviator Roland Garros, is held over two weeks between late May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros.

The winner - Virginie Razzano has a distress story.  Razzano paid tribute to the man who had been both her coach and partner for the past nine years; Razzano’s fiance — Stephane Vidal, also her longtime coach — died at age 32 of a brain tumor in May 2011, a little more than a week before her first-round match at last year’s French Open.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar