Serena Williams wins 1st match of her professional comeback at Indian Wells

Serena Williams was successful in her professional return to singles tennis at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. on Thursday. Williams bested Zarina Diyas in the opening round of the tournament, a round that Williams would normally not have to play in, but she’s unseeded due to her being away from professional singles play for little over a year.

Williams won the match in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, and will now go on to face No. 29 Kiki Bertens in the next round. Her sister, Venus Williams, is also in the tournament and can be her opponent in the third round if she also wins her next match.

Williams started off a little slow, and it took her six attempts before she managed to secure a break point, but she seemed to improve as the match went on. She found her power, she found her lateral movement, and Diyas started to fall behind near the end of the first set.

The match length was 1 hour, 32 minutes.

Diyas and Williams had played each other twice before going into Thursday’s match. Both were on hard courts, the first being at Indian Wells in 2015 and the second being at the Miami Masters in 2016. Both were straight-set wins for Williams.

Williams has been out of singles competition for more than a year, since she won the Australian Open in 2017. At the time, she was eight weeks pregnant. She announced her return on her Instagram account Wednesday.

And said return has been a long time coming, but there were complications from the birth that forced her to miss training time and she hasn’t felt physically ready for full-on competition until now. She was originally scheduled to return at the 2018 Australian Open, but withdrew because she felt she wasn’t ready.

First Set

Williams dropped the first two points, but quickly had a break point attempt in the first game. She didn’t convert it, but it was close. She then quickly held serve, and seemed to find her power again. She fought hard, but again came up short in the break. On Diyas’ third service game, Williams had a triple break point attempt, but couldn’t get it, still. On Diyas’ fourth service game, she held at love.

Serving at 4-5, Williams was at 30-30 and facing a second serve. She blistered her second serve down the line, and went on to win the point and the ensuing one to stay on serve. On Diyas’ next service game, Williams finally converted on a break — her sixth attempt — and was suddenly serving for the set. It took her three set point attempts, but she won the first set, 7-5.

Second Set

Diyas managed to hold her first serve, and Williams held hers. Then Williams scored a break on Diyas, on her first attempt of the set. But Diyas fought right back, and managed to get the break on Williams on her first attempt of the match! Diyas was then up, 40-0, on the ensuing serve, but Williams fought all the way back to deuce. It took her three attempts, but she got the break and went up, 3-2, in the set.

But Diyas answered back, and after four total break attempts, she scored a break on Williams, who hit multiple backhand errors in the game. Diyas served next, and once again they got to deuce, and once again Williams got the break. On her next service game, Williams went straight to 40-0, and then hit a blistering ace to hold serve. She went down, 0-30, on Diyas’ ensuing serve but fought to a match point — and she got it!

Williams is considered one of, if not the greatest, tennis players of all time. Her 2017 Australian Open win was her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, passing Steffi Graf’s 22. She wants more, though, and the fact that she’s returning at a tournament like the one at Indian Wells, possibly the biggest non-Grand Slam tournament on the WTA Tour, makes it clear she’s serious.