Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams on Thursday was sent crashing out at Indian Wells, falling in three sets to French qualifier Diane Parry.
The 45-year-old Williams, playing on a wild card at the prestigious ATP/WTA Masters 1000 event, rallied from a set and a break down to force a third set, but Parry, ranked 111th in the world, stormed through the decider for a 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1 triumph.
“It’s always so fun,” Williams said. “Of course, losing isn’t fun, but it’s great to play in front of a home crowd.”
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
While the Californian star is enjoying competition since returning in July last year from a 16-month hiatus, Williams was mum on the chances fans would see her and sister Serena play together this year.
“You’ll have to ask her that,” Venus Williams said to the question that has bubbled in the tennis world since 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams re-entered the anti-doping testing pool.
While Venus Williams remains in search of her first win of the year after first-round exits at the Australian Open and in Austin, Texas, she said Thursday’s game was not a good gauge of her form.
“I think today is not the kind of day that you want to assess,” she said. “The conditions are impossible. Also, my match in Austin the conditions were impossible. In Austin I refused to relent and change my game, and I lost very quickly. Today I tried to adjust. It’s not easy. You can’t trust anything that you do out there.”
The 23-year-old Parry, who was born after Venus Williams had won the first four of her Grand Slam titles, said despite the conditions she could feel the force of her opponent’s game.
“Even if it wasn’t pretty tennis today because of the wind, you can still clearly see the quality of her shots — forehand, backhand — as soon as she gets a ball she can attack, there’s little chance you’re getting it back,” Parry said.
“You can imagine what it was like when she was at her best,” she said, adding that it was “an honor to be able to play against a legend of our sport.”
“I watched more of Serena, the greatest player of all time, but I think a lot of people forget the career that [Venus Williams] has had,” she said. “When, during the warm-up, the announcer gave a brief summary of her career, you think: ‘Oh right, that’s really something.’”
In men’s first-round action, Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov booked a second-round meeting with top-seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 grudge match victory over Terence Atmane, who had beaten the former world No. 3 in Acapulco, Mexico, last week.
“I think I started the match really well, but it was just difficult to maintain a solid level,” Dimitrov said. “It could have gone either way, but I was able to stay very strong in the most important moments.”
Dimitrov, a 2021 Indian Wells semi-finalist, now gets a shot at Alcaraz, who is undefeated in 12 matches this year and beat Dimitrov in the fourth round in Indian Wells last year.
Alcaraz, whose Australian Open triumph in January made him at 22 the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam, is to launch his bid for a third Indian Wells title today.
Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin was ousted 6-3, 6-2 by Sebastian Baez of Argentina, while in the women’s doubles, Eri Hozumi of Japan and Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien defeated Jessica Pegula and McCartney Kessler of the US 7-5, 1-6, 10-7.
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Janice Tjen of Indonesia eased past Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Katarzyna Piter of Poland 6-4, 6-2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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