the WTA Finals.
The three-time defending champion
made it 16-straight wins at the season-ending championships by beating
Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4 in Monday's tournament opener, shaking off the
injuries that forced her out of her previous two tournaments and the
off-court distraction of disparaging comments about her from Russian
tennis official Shamil Tarpischev.
Williams
is now five wins behind Martina Navratilova's all-time record of 21 in a
row at the tournament, although she won't have enough matches to catch
up this year.
"I just found
out last time that I was 15 matches and I was like, 'Oh boy, not another
streak,'" Williams said. "So now I'm 16 and, gosh, here we go again."
Williams
looked right at home in Singapore's brand new indoor stadium, with the
tournament having moved from Istanbul this year, despite having pulled
out of her previous two tournaments in China through illness and a knee
injury. She also showed no signs of having been preoccupied with an
off-court issue involving comments by top Russian sports official Shamil
Tarpischev.
He has been
heavily fined and suspended by the WTA for referring to Serena and elder
sister Venus as "the Williams brothers." He claimed the line was out of
context and meant as a joke, but Williams said it was sexist and
racist.
In the other Red Group match,
Simona Halep beat Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-3 in a meeting between the
only two newcomers in the eight-player field.
On Tuesday in the White Group, Maria Sharapova will take on Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova will face Agnieszka Radwanska.
The
top-ranked Williams was shaky in her opening service game, having to
save two break points, but soon settled and took a 4-1 lead. Ivanovic
got back on serve at 4-4 and had a crucial break opportunity to go up
5-4 but missed a volley.
"That
was a huge point but it was actually quite a hard volley, the ball was
dropping fast and I didn't come in fast enough," Ivanovic said. "I kind
of got down a little bit on myself, then I rushed a little bit that
(next) service game, so that was a little bit disappointing."
In
the final game of the opening set, Ivanovic fell behind 0-40 and
eventually dropped serve on a double-fault — one of seven she made
during the match.
Ivanovic came from a set down to
beat Williams at the Australian Open, and looked capable of a similar
comeback when she broke in the opening game of the second set, but the
American immediately broke back.
Williams served 12 aces and improved her record against Ivanovic to 8-1 despite her injury-interrupted preparation.
"I
felt the knee a little bit, but compared to what it was in Beijing, it
just feels so much better," Williams said. "I was up 4-1 in the first
set and cruising and she does what she does best. I felt my energy level
got a little low and then I just tried to do everything I can to bring
my energy level up to just to fight."
Williams will next face Halep on Wednesday.
In
the second match, Bouchard managed to win only four points against
Halep's first serve and committed 30 unforced errors against only 11 by
her opponent.
"Going for it
is always my game style but today there was definitely a lack of
consistency," Bouchard said. "I didn't feel match sharp, but I feel like
I can build on this and I still have another match, which is a bit of a
positive."
Not a lot was expected of Halep at this tournament, but she already has one win ahead of the match against Williams.
"Maybe I can believe," Halep said. "I have the chance to win this tournament, but I don't want to think about this."
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