Earlier this season, former world number one Williams was officially considered an inactive player, having gone a whole year without competing.<\/p>\n
Then, out of nowhere as the eyes of the tennis world were trained on Wimbledon, Williams announced she was ready to play again at the Washington Open.<\/p>\n
Williams beat 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns on her comeback in Washington, whetting her appetite for more competitive action.<\/p>\n
Despite an opening defeat in Cincinnati, the two-time champion received a wildcard for a record-extending 25th appearance at the US Open.<\/p>\n
Some argued putting a veteran with one victory in more than two years into the 128-woman draw blocked the development of a younger player.<\/p>\n
Others believed an all-time great should always be offered the chance to compete.<\/p>\n
Williams’ impressive level against Muchova answered the doubters – once she overcame a worrying start.<\/p>\n
When she won only two of the opening 13 points, it felt like an ominous sign of things to come and led to a subdued atmosphere on Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n
A roar of encouragement arrived when Williams claimed her first point of the match, with the volume turning up as she started to gain a foothold.<\/p>\n
Improving her service game proved key to the turnaround, acting as a confidence-builder which led to more fluent timing and movement.<\/p>\n
The ball-striking was as clean and crisp as it had been for a long time.<\/p>\n
But, given she had only played four matches in 18 months, Williams faded in a deciding set where Muchova sharpened up and served strongly.<\/p>\n
Williams had proved a point. Yet she remained typically evasive when asked if she planned to more tournaments later this year.<\/p>\n
“Are there any tournaments in the States? Can someone move a tournament here?” she asked.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know that I’m willing to travel that far at this stage in my career to go play.<\/p>\n
“I love playing. But my goal is to do what I want to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this season, former world number one Williams was officially considered an inactive player, having gone a whole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-97723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}