TORONTO (AP) — Serena Williams earned her first win in additional than a 12 months Monday, beating Nuria Parrizas-Diaz 6-3, 6-4 on the ladies’s Nationwide Financial institution Open.
It’s simply the second event of the season for the 40-year-old Williams, who returned to competitors at Wimbledon simply over a month in the past. The 23-time Grand Slam champion fell within the first spherical to Concord Tan in three units on the All England Membership.
Earlier than then, she final competed on the 2021 Wimbledon event, the place she retired in the course of her first match as a consequence of a torn hamstring suffered after slipping on the grass floor.
Williams’ first victory because the 2021 French Open despatched her to face the both Belinda Bencic or Tereza Martincova.
Williams began out sturdy, taking the primary two video games with relative ease.
Parrizas-Diaz tied it 2-2, however regardless of Williams’ struggles at sure factors, the 31-year-old Spaniard couldn’t discover sufficient of a constant stream to get forward. Williams discovered her rhythm, mixing strong contact along with her signature energy and placing shot after shot out of Parrizas-Diaz’s attain.
Williams’ effort had the followers on their ft roaring and a few even bowing.
Williams received the ultimate three video games to take the primary set, then surged forward within the second after the 57th-ranked Parrizas-Diaz took a 4-3 lead. She endured a nine-deuce recreation to carry serve and even the set, then broke within the subsequent recreation earlier than serving out the victory.
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Extra AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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