The 2020 tennis year of… Serena Williams
Serena Williams won a WTA tournament for the first time since 2017. But the US icon has missed its big goal again.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Dec 11, 2020, 08:07 pm
Again nothing with Grand Slam title number 24. This is Serena Williams' sporting record for this year. Whether the 39-year-old American is still as scared as it was two years ago, when she first against Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final and then against Naomi Osaka in the US Open final or in 2019 with the defeats against Simona Halep in London and Bianca Andreescu failed to set Margaret Court's record in New York City is an open question. Serena also knows how to keep busy off the pitch.
The start of the season, however, held the first tournament victory since 2017. At the WTA event in Auckland, which was not very well attended, Serena defeated Jessica Pegula in the final, before that Amanda Anisimova and Laura Siegemund had to lay down their arms. The end of Williams against Qiang Wang at the Australian Open will be remembered as one of the biggest surprises of the tennis year. Because against the Chinese Serena had defeated extremely convincingly at the US Open in the autumn before.
Serena loses US Open semifinals to Azarenka
The fact that the veteran went to the Bütt for her country again in the Fed Cup came as a bit of a surprise. Serena lost her match against Anastasija Sevastova in three tight sets, against Jelena Ostapenko she was successful.
After the corona break, Serena apparently diagnosed herself with a high need for matches, she competed in Lexington. And lost there in the tie-break of the third set against Shelby Rogers. One tournament further in Cincinnati / New York came the end in the round of 16 against Maria Sakkari, after Williams had already had a lot of trouble with Arantxa Rus at the start. At the US Open immediately afterwards, Serena took Sakkari revenge, but was defeated in the semifinals after a smooth first set to Victoria Azarenka. The end of the year in Roland Garros was unadorned: after the opening win against Kristie Ahn, Serena Williams did not play for the second round match against Tsvetana Pironkova due to an injury.
And so Serena Williams winters in eleventh place on the WTA charts, with a record of 16 wins and only four defeats on the tour (not counting the Fed Cup). Still noteworthy for the US legend: the serve strength. In her 20 matches at WTA events, Serena shot 178 aces into her opponent's field.