Shotmaking: Serena Williams d. Kiki Bertens

In our Shotmaking series, Anita Aguilar will provide the photos and Steve Tignor will provide the captions. Together, they'll tell the story of a match at the U.S. Open.

It was a struggle from the start for Serena, who lost her serve early, and was twice on the verge of losing the first set.

“I was a little tight today,” she said. She double-faulted 10 times.

This shot may have summed up the early going for Serena. Afterward, she went back to the practice court. “Patrick [Mouratoglou, her coach] told me some things that he saw that he thought I could work on to improve and to get better.”

The only member of Serena’s camp who looked relaxed about it all was Chip.

Serena has learned French; is Italian next?

“I’m going to smash my racquet, I’m going to smash my racquet, I’m going to...do this instead.”

For her part, the 23-year-old Bertens didn’t look overwhelmed by the occasion or her opponent.

She was all about watching the ball.

And she belted 21 winners, just two fewer than Serena. But when she served for the first set at 5-4, everything unraveled—the Dutchwoman double-faulted once and committed three unforced errors and was quickly broken.

Serena was also down 0-4 in the first-set tiebreaker, but stormed all the way back to win it 7-5. That was worthy of an A-level scream. On the other side of the net, Bertens was busy flinging her racquet across the court. The day in Ashe had reached its peak.

The handshake, though, was subdued...

...and this was as much twirl as Serena could muster when it was over. Pleased or not, she's now just five wins away from a calendar-year Grand Slam.

Bertens, at least, seemed to enjoy the moment, and made a few fans along the way.