Venus Williams battled through long rallies at Arthur Ashe Stadium to gain command of her fourth-round match against Shahar Peer of Israel, all the time wearing a look of complete frustration. All the while, she was in no way in any kind of genuine danger
Williams’s 7-6 (3), 6-3 triumph Sunday had not exactly turned out to be a thing of splendor, however it did demonstrate a quantity of strength which had not been completely certain at the start of the United States Open. Due to a knee injury, Williams was unable to play ever since Wimbledon, a competition she had to humbly exit in the quarterfinals.
Williams’s win resolved some of the mystery, due to the fact that Peer gave gave it her all.
“It’s always good to have a tough match, I think, or tougher match, kind of a match where you have to challenge yourself against your opponent and the conditions and everything and just continue to stay tough and to stay positive,” Williams stated. “I was happy to do that today. We always have had very competitive matches, so I know it’s not going to be something I just walk through when I play against her. I have to stay focused and ready to take every point or else she will. It was a good challenge.”
After Peer had fought in order to remain in the first set at 5-6, it came to a tiebreaker. After that, Peer fell behind 0-40 and was confronted with five break points, each of which would have provided Williams the set. All in all, the game went 22 points, including some long rallies with spectacular shots, before Peer managed to win.
Instead of growing discouraged, Williams went on to win tiebreaker and take care of any potential crisis. “Winning the first set always feels good, instead of having to regroup and figure out how to win the match,” Williams said.
23 year old Peer regarded Sunday’s match up as a move in the right direction. “I do think it can give me more for the future, because every time I played Venus I had a tough time and she was always kind of killing me every match,” Peer said. “So today was much closer match, and I think I’m playing better.”
Williams, the No. 3 seed, moves on to play No. 6 Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who won easily over Anastasia Palyuchenkova of Russia, 6-3, 6-0.
