Three weeks after she claimed the Wimbledon title, Serena Williams returned to Centre Court to open her quest for a gold medal with an emphatic, 6-3, 6-1 win over Jelena Jankovic.
The sights and sounds of the All England Club retrofitted for the Olympics may have been different, but Williams picked up right where she left off, striking her first of eight aces to open the match. Jankovic had several wins over Williams in the past, their head-to-head at 4-4 coming into the match, but their last encounter came in 2010, also the year of Jankovic’s last singles title. The Serbian No. 2 has been slumping badly from the giddy heights of a few years ago, her 2012 season studded with 11 first-round losses, and she was clearly outmatched by an in-form Williams today.
In some ways, it was one of Jankovic’s better performances recently. She struck a clean backhand return winner on the second point of the match to remind us of the fluidity and effectiveness of that shot. She held her first service game with a shot behind Williams which had the world No. 4 executing an unplanned-but-impressive split, but with Jankovic serving at 1-2, the American started to impose herself on the return. Twice in the game she took the ball beautifully early, returning it straight back to Jankovic’s feet and earning a shanked backhand. The second time it took her to break point, and she took it as Jankovic took an awkward fall on the seemingly slippery grass.
Jankovic would get to 30-30 twice on Williams’ serve in the opening set, at 3-1 and then again at 5-3. Each time, Williams snuffed out any chance of a break with big serving, and she slammed down a kick serve for the first set. Unlike her early rounds during the Championships, however, it was not only Williams’ serve that was working. Her groundstrokes were measured, deep and precise, with plenty left in reserve to inject devastating pace, as she did on the forehand for break point with Jankovic serving to open the second set.
Pummeling Jankovic’s forehand increasingly yielded errors, and Williams broke twice to lead 3-0 after beautifully changing direction on the ball for a backhand winner. If there was one flaw in her performance, it was that Williams often missed what should have been relatively easy finishing shots when moving forward, but with 20 winners for just 11 unforced errors, she will not be unduly concerned.
Jankovic competed well, but she could not find the pace or accuracy on her signature, down-the-line backhand, and without it her tennis seemed toothless, unable to capitalize on how well she was reading Williams’ serve. At 1-5, she double faulted to give up two match points, then gave up the second as her forehand flew wide. It simply wasn’t good enough against an in-form Serena who, with First Lady Michelle Obama among her supporters, seemed determined to make a statement with her victory in a potentially tricky opener.