"Composed" Serena Williams cruises past Gavrilova in 2021 season debut

Serena Williams looked strong in her first tour-level match in over four months on Monday, cruising past former No. 20 Daria Gavrilova in her opening match at the Yarra Valley Classic, 6-1, 6-4.

Serena played—and won—an exhibition match against Naomi Osaka last Friday. For her last tour-level match, you’d have to go all the way back to September 28, 2020, exactly 126 days ago, when she won her first-round match at Roland Garros before pulling out of the event with an Achilles injury.

But there was no sign of rust against Gavrilova. After a pair of holds to start the match, Serena won five games in a row to take the first set. Then, after four more holds to start the second set, Serena broke one more time for 3-2, and the two players held from there until it was all over.

Serena finished the match with almost twice as many winners as unforced errors, 27 to 15.

"I felt that I was definitely composed, and in a zone, I guess," she said in her on-court interview.

"I was just trying to do the things that I've been working on."

Awaiting Serena in the third round of the Yarra Valley Classic is fellow mom-on-tour Tsvetana Pironkova, who rallied from 6-1, 2-0 down to beat the No. 9 seed, Donna Vekic, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.

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Serena has won all five previous meetings against Pironkova, but their last encounter was a nail-biter, as she rallied from a set and a break down to beat her in the quarterfinals of the 2020 US Open, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The two were scheduled to play again a few weeks later at Roland Garros, but Serena withdrew.

Serena said that she might go back and watch some of their US Open match to prepare.

“It’s important for me just to see what she did, and what I did,” the former No. 1 told reporters.

“I’m always rooting for her. She’s such a great story, and she’s a good person.”

Serena’s straight-set win was a stark contrast to the match just before her on Margaret Court Arena, with Coco Gauff squeaking past Jil Teichmann after two hours and 45 minutes, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5).

It wasn’t part of the same event, though. Gauff and Teichmann were playing a first-round match from one of the other two WTA 500 events taking place in Melbourne this week, the Gippsland Trophy.

“Today was a tough match,” said Gauff, who originally led Teichmann, 6-3, 4-2, as well as 4-1 in the decider. “I thought I played well the whole match, but she definitely stepped it up in the second set.”

In her second-round match, Gauff faces a first-time meeting with Great Britain’s Katie Boulter.

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Later Monday, world No. 2 Simona Halep launched her 2021 campaign by taking a high-quality contest over Anastasia Potapova, 6-4, 6-4.

“It was a nice atmosphere. It's really nice to see people cheering for us,” the two-time major winner told the crowd in attendance.

“I just wanted to feel the court, feel the game. I knew that it was going to be a difficult match.”

Like Serena, Halep was appearing for the first time since last year's French Open, where she was outclassed by eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the round of 16. The world No. 2, who picked up three titles in 2020, is aiming to win a trophy on Australian soil for the first time this week.