WASHINGTON, Aug 15, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Serena Williams suffered her first
loss since 2012 to a rival outside the WTA’s top 100, falling to fellow
American Shelby Rogers in a Friday quarter-final at the Top Seed Open.
Rogers, ranked 116th, outlasted ninth-ranked Williams 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5)
after two hours and seven minutes, finishing the 23-time Grand Slam champion
with a service winner.
“It’s every kid’s dream growing up to be able to do something like that,”
Rogers said. “Weird circumstances. Weird surroundings. But a win is a win.”
The US Open hardcourt tuneup event at Lexington, Kentucky, is being staged
in a quarantine bubble due to the COVID-19 pandemic that had kept Williams
idle since a February Fed Cup appearance.
Top seed Williams had not lost to a player outside the top 100 since
falling to France’s Virginie Razzano in the first round of the 2012 French
Open.
Williams, who ousted sister Venus on Thursday, was playing matches to
prepare for the US Open, which starts August 31. She will seek a seventh
title on the New York hardcourts to match Margaret Court’s all-time record of
24 Grand Slam crowns.
“I have only good things to take,” Williams said. “I can play a lot
better.”
Rogers reached her first WTA semi-final since Rio in 2016. She’ll face
63rd-ranked Swiss left-hander Jil Teichmann, who ousted American Catherine
Bellis 6-2, 6-4.
The other semi-final will send American Jen Brady — who ousted Czech
Marie Bouzkova 6-1, 6-2 — against US teen Coco Gauff, who won 10 of the last
11 games to rally past Tunisian eighth seed Ons Jabeur 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
A rain delay of two hours and 45 minutes postponed her match, but Williams
showed no sign the wait had put the 38-year-old mother off her game.
Williams broke for a 2-0 lead by forcing an errant Rogers backhand, broke
again in the sixth game when Rogers netted a forehand and held on a service
winner to claim the opening set after only 26 minutes.
“Definitely a little overwhelmed in the first with that pace,” Rogers said
of Williams and her powerful serve. “Tried to hit a few more volleys in the
second, just hit one more ball.”
Rogers, who never faced a break point in the last two sets, broke on her
third chance in the last game of the second set when Williams netted a
forehand.
Both players held serve into the tie-breaker, where Williams jumped ahead
3-1, only to have Rogers run off four straight points, two on Serena’s serve,
to seize the lead for good.
Williams netted a backhand to give Rogers two match points, but saved the
first with a service winner only to fall when Rogers answered with a service
winner of her own.
Rogers, who will return to the WTA top 100 next week, was in her first
quarter-final since May 2017, due in part to a long absence after a 2018 left
knee injury.