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Serena Williams vs. Yulia Putintseva: Score, Reaction from 2016 French Open
- Updated: June 2, 2016
World No. 1 Serena Williams survived an early scare against 21-year-old Yulia Putintseva Thursday at Roland Garros and advanced to the French Open semifinals with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win.
The unquestioned favorite stamped her ticket to her third French Open semifinal appearance in four years and took a significant step toward repeating as champion.
Putintseva was appearing in the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career, and although the young Kazakh gave Williams a run for her money, she wilted in the match’s biggest moments.
The 21-time Grand Slam champion got off to an uneven, choppy start that likely wasn’t helped by the weather conditions.
Play had to be temporarily halted in the third game due to rain, and when the action resumed, Putintseva broke Williams and then consolidated with a hold to race out to a 3-1 lead.
Serena then began to bounce back in typical fashion by sandwiching a break of Putintseva in between two holds and regaining the lead at 4-3. As David Waldstein of the New York Times pointed out, the underdog started to display some inconsistency after Williams played some sloppy tennis in the early going:
Putintseva is now the one hitting some pretty wild shots. Serena holds, 4-3.
— David Waldstein (@DavidWaldstein) June 2, 2016
As Dawn Rhodes of the Chicago Tribune noted, Serena appeared to be in a feeling-out process rather than going full bore:
Relatively typical early going from Serena. Lots of errors as she works to find a smooth rhythm but it’s 4-all with Putintseva. #RG16
— Dawn Rhodes (@rhodes_dawn) June 2, 2016
A Putintseva hold made the score 5-5 when Serena was on the verge of potentially taking the opening set.
Douglas Robson of USA Today believed the rainy, windy weather was partially to blame for Williams’ struggles:
Putintseva is making Serena work with lots of high margin balls and in this weather American can’t punch through as well. 5-5. #RG16
— Douglas Robson (@dougrobson) June 2, 2016
While the conditions were an issue for Serena, ESPN’s Brad Gilbert felt as though Putintseva was using them to her advantage:
I like how the spunky …
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