If Serena Williams wasn't going to provide any consolation, Francesca Schiavone had to find it elsewhere during their opening-round match Monday at the U.S. Open.
Williams won the first eight games of the match against Schiavone, a former world's No. 4-ranked player who won the 2010 French Open and was a finalist there a year later.
According to a USA TODAY Sports report, Schiavone had won just 25 percent of her first-serve points and lost a 26-point rally to the top-ranked Williams.
After the match, Schiavone was asked about the impromptu hug. (Watch the Hug In the Video Below)
"I don't need a hug in that moment, I need a game - points," she said, USA TODAY Sports reported. "I went to the ballboy to say, 'Well, that's tough.' No, it was just a joke."
Schiavone was down 4-0 in the second set when she finally won her first game of the match.
When Schiavone finally got on the board more than 50 minutes into the hour-long match, holding serve to win her first game with a volley winner, she swung her right fist in a celebratory roundhouse punch and shouted.
Shiavone then showed a huge smile when she returned to the sidelines. She threw her racket toward her changeover chair.
Williams went on to win the next two games for a 6-0, 6-1 victory.
Williams was nearly perfect, making only eight unforced errors, compiling a 13-3 edge in winners, hitting serves faster than 115 mph, and taking the first 10 games. She needed only an hour to advance to the second round.
"I knew playing a former Grand Slam champion in the first round was a really, really tough draw," the New York Daily Post reported Williams as saying, "so I tried to be super serious."
On this night, with the outcome no longer in doubt, Schiavone was the one who was not serious.
© 2023 Sportsworldnews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
