Serena Williams was so frustrated she wanted to "crack every racket."
Still, Williams rallied from a rocky start to defeat Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 Tuesday night in the second round of the Rogers Cup.
Battling a nagging injury to her left ankle, Williams was unable to move with the finesse that once made her the world's top female player.
"I was playing so bad and she was playing so good, she was moving very well, actually," Williams said. "I've played her before and she plays well when she's down.
"I was so angry, I just wanted to crack every racket. But I didn't do it. That's a plus."
Williams said the ankle feels pretty good but that the injury has caused her knee to weaken. She planned to have her therapist look at it before deciding if she can continue playing in the tournament.
"I didn't feel very good at all," she said. "I wasn't even moving to any balls. I have tomorrow off so maybe that can help but I'll have to see what my therapist says."
With the US Open just over two weeks away, Williams is using this event as a much-needed tuneup for the final Grand Slam of the season.
Cohen-Aloro, ranked 91st in the world, broke Williams to open the match, but the American broke back then managed hold serve for a 2-1 lead. Cohen-Aloro then broke Williams again to take a 4-3 lead before breaking Williams a third time to win the set.
At that point, the crowd tried to give the star player a boost as shouts of "Go Serena!" echoed throughout the Rexall Centre.
It must have worked.
Williams seemed to gain some confidence after going up a break in the second set, putting a little more pace on her serve and making fewer unforced errors.
Williams broke Cohen-Aloro to open the third set then broke her again to take a 3-0 lead and put the match out of Cohen-Aloro's reach.
Earlier, Amelie Mauresmo acknowledged she was rusty, and Svetlana Kuznetsova appeared shaky.
Second-seeded Mauresmo, the defending champion, opened the tournament with a 6-2, 6-3 second-round win over Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar. Kuznetsova, the No. 3 seed from Russia, rallied from a horrible start to win 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 over Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.
Mauresmo, who received a bye in the first round, is playing her first tournament since she represented France in the Fed Cup in mid-July. She was happy with some elements of her game but said there are still some things she needs to work on before the US Open later this month in New York.
"A few things worked pretty well today," she said. "I'm thinking about the serve especially. I'm still looking for the right timing on the court."
She looked solid in the first set, breaking her 53rd-ranked opponent twice. But Mauresmo struggled a bit in the second, having to fight off a couple break points in the first game and later missing a chance to serve out the match at love.
Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, committed several unforced errors against 35th-ranked Medina Garrigues. The sloppy match featured 12 service breaks and 27 total break chances.
In first-round action, 11th-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro was upset by Li Na of China 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; No. 12 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Montenegro defeated Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-2, 7-6 (3), and No. 10 Nathalie Dechy of France downed Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia 6-2, 6-4.
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