Serena Williams’ 1,000th match ends in defeat at Italian Open

Serena Williams’ 1,000th tour-level match led to defeat as she marked her return to motion with a 7-6 (6), 7-5 loss to Nadia Podoroska on Wednesday within the second spherical of the Italian Open.
The eighth-seeded Williams, who hadn’t performed because the Australian Open, got here from a break down twice within the opening set and saved the primary three set factors she confronted within the tiebreaker earlier than Podoroska transformed her fourth. The Argentine went on to win in 1 hour, 58 minutes.
“It’s tough to have a first match on clay. It was definitely kind of good to go the distance and to try to be out there, but clearly I can do legions better,” mentioned Williams, who has received the Italian Open 4 occasions. “Maybe I do need a few more matches, so I’m going to try to figure that out with my coach and my team and see what we would like to do. … I have been training for months, but it feels definitely different on clay to make that last adjustment.”
The 24-year-old Podoroska took a 5-2 lead within the second set however was damaged at love the primary time she tried to serve out the match. However, she broke Williams once more within the twelfth recreation to seal her third profession win over a top-10 participant.
In the boys’s match, Rafael Nadal was taking part in native teenager Jannik Sinner.
Earlier, third-seeded Daniil Medvedev misplaced 6-2, 6-4 to fellow Russian Aslan Karatsev.