Serena overcomes chair ump's error to win
Williams loses 2nd set on missed let call, then rallies to beat Stosur
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SYDNEY, Australia - Serena Williams didn't even bother to chase down the return, certain that her serve had hit the net and would be called a let.
When the point was instead awarded to her opponent, Australian Samantha Stosur, Williams quickly went from serving for the match to fighting off match points in her season debut at the Sydney International on Sunday.
Williams seemed visibly upset by the chair umpire's mistake until a late rally to pull out a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory.
She was serving for the match at 6-5 and 30-30 in the second set when the umpire, Asitha Attigala of Sri Lanka, missed the let call. Stosur went on to break Williams and won the ensuing tiebreaker. Williams fought off four match points in the 10th game of the third set before breaking Stosur two games later to win the match.
She spoke to Attigala at the end of the game and second set, but didn't argue. At the end of the match, she shook his hand.
Williams acknowledged afterward the incident disrupted her game.
"I felt like I was going to win that second set,'' she said. "And then I hit a massive net cord and the guy didn't call it. Even Sam knew it was a net cord. It was frustrating at that point. These types of things seem to happen to me a lot.''
The heavily pro-Stosur crowd at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre - site of the 2000 Olympics tennis competition - loudly cheered every Stosur point. Williams received only smatters of appreciative applause even on her big points.
Williams said she was disappointed in her game, noting that she had missed a lot of easy shots and struggled with the strong wind at times.
"It was definitely tough conditions with the wind,'' Williams said. "With that being said, I just made so many errors, and that was a little frustrating because I feel like I've been working hard and to come out and perform at the level I did, I wasn't extremely happy.''
The last time the two played, Williams beat Stosur in straight sets at the Beijing Olympics in August, when Stosur won only two games.
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"I'm very disappointed at the moment but I'm trying to look at the positives,'' she said. "I could have went down in straight sets but I kept going and then found myself at four match points.''
Williams, ranked No. 2 and last year's U.S. Open winner, pulled out of the WTA Championships last November and later from the U.S. team for the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, due to a lingering hamstring injury. She arrived in Australia this week saying she was injury-free.
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In another match Sunday, former U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, the fifth seed here, also needed three sets to beat China's Peng Shuai, advancing to the second round with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.
Second-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, a finalist at the Hopman Cup team event with her brother Marat Safin against Slovakia, plays Sorana Cirstea of Romania in the first round Monday.
In the joint ATP-WTA tournament, top-seeded Novak Djokovic and third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both have received first-round byes and could meet in the men's semifinals. Djokovic beat Tsonga in last year's Australian Open final.
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