Serena rolls into Miami fourth round
25 March 2013 1:15 AM GMT
World No. 1 Serena Williams was rolling Saturday, even before she got to her third-round match against Ayumi Morita at the Miami ATP Masters and WTA hardcourt tournament.
The American, seeking a record sixth Miami WTA crown, resorted to some unfamiliar transportation -- a bicycle -- to beat the traffic into Key Biscayne and make her match.
“The traffic was crazy and everyone was like, I have been here for an hour and I’m staying like eight minutes away,” Williams said.
“They were in the traffic for an hour. I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not going to make my match if I don’t get there.’”
She asked hotel staff for a golf cart, but they didn’t have one, offering a motor bike instead. “I’m like, ‘I don’t do motor bikes,’” Williams said.
She was slightly less reluctant to try the bicycle, which she said turned out to be fun. “It was probably one of my best memories I think ever, riding a bike to a match. That’s pretty cool,” said Williams, who was pleased to be told that tennis great Martina Navratilova sometimes rode a bike to Wimbledon.“Yeah?” Williams said. “Honestly, I hear a lot of players do that, but I never did that. So, check.”
Maybe the unfamiliar exercise accounted for her slow start against Japan’s Morita, who broke Williams in the second game en route to a 3-0 lead. Williams was back on track soon enough, winning seven straight games to lock up the first set 6-3 and hold her serve in the opening game of the second. She gained the only advantage she needed with a break for 4-2.
The American, seeking a record sixth Miami WTA crown, resorted to some unfamiliar transportation -- a bicycle -- to beat the traffic into Key Biscayne and make her match.
“The traffic was crazy and everyone was like, I have been here for an hour and I’m staying like eight minutes away,” Williams said.
“They were in the traffic for an hour. I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not going to make my match if I don’t get there.’”
She asked hotel staff for a golf cart, but they didn’t have one, offering a motor bike instead. “I’m like, ‘I don’t do motor bikes,’” Williams said.
She was slightly less reluctant to try the bicycle, which she said turned out to be fun. “It was probably one of my best memories I think ever, riding a bike to a match. That’s pretty cool,” said Williams, who was pleased to be told that tennis great Martina Navratilova sometimes rode a bike to Wimbledon.“Yeah?” Williams said. “Honestly, I hear a lot of players do that, but I never did that. So, check.”
Maybe the unfamiliar exercise accounted for her slow start against Japan’s Morita, who broke Williams in the second game en route to a 3-0 lead. Williams was back on track soon enough, winning seven straight games to lock up the first set 6-3 and hold her serve in the opening game of the second. She gained the only advantage she needed with a break for 4-2.
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