Her yells of “Come on!” filling a stadium devoid of spectators, Serena Williams was pushed to the brink of defeat before advancing to the next round of the Western & Southern Open.
The former world No.1 was involved in her longest match since 2012 before pulling away with a perfect tiebreaker to beat Arantxa Rus 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 7-6 (7-0) on Monday.
Rus is a Dutch qualifier ranked No. 72 whose flat, left-handed strokes from the baseline gave Williams some trouble. No.3 seed Williams dropped four games in a row in the second set, then did so again in the third, when she fell behind 6-5.
Rus served for the match there and, at deuce in that game, was two points from victory.
She wouldn’t win another point. A double-fault gave Williams a break chance and an errant groundstroke sent the match to the concluding tiebreaker.
Showing the strokes and grit that carried her to 23 grand slam titles – against an opponent who has never won so much as one tour-level singles title of any sort – Williams ran away with it, ending the 2 hour, 48-minute match with a forehand, celebrating most points with a yell and a clenched left fist.
The 38-year-old Williams hadn’t spent that much time on a court since the 2012 French Open, when she lost in the first round to Virginie Razzano in 3 hours, 3 minutes. That was Williams’ only career first-round exit at a grand slam tournament – and so perhaps she’d rather forget it.
“I’m trying to think of the last time I played a three-hour match,” Williams said in a post-match TV interview.
“That was tough. It was a real physical match out there,” she said about facing Rus. “She just kept fighting.”
After losses Sunday by No. 1 seed Karolina Pliskova and No. 2 Sofia Kenin, it appeared Williams might join them on the way out.
But thanks in part to 14 aces, Williams moved into a third-round match against No. 13 Maria Sakkari, a 6-4 7-6 (11-9) winner against Yulia Putintseva after beating 16-year-old American Coco Gauff in the first round.
In other women’s action, No. 6 seed Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, joined the list of early exits by top players with a 2-6 7-5 6-2 loss to 48th-ranked Marie Bouzkova.
No. 8 Johanna Konta defeated Kirsten Flipkens 6-2 6-0, No. 14 Elise Mertens got past Kristina Mladenovic 6-1 6-7 (7-5) 6-3 and qualifier Jessica Pegula beat 18-year-old Amanda Anisimova 7-5 6-2.
