Serena Williams reacts to a point in her first-round match against Camila Giorgi. Photo / Getty
Serena Williams reacts to a point in her first-round match against Camila Giorgi. Photo / Getty
Serena Williams is safely through to the second round of the ASB Classic, overcoming a slow start to ease past Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi 6-3 6-2.
It wasn't all plain sailing for the top seed, who was troubled by the wind early on, but she hit some unstoppable shots as she found her range.
Williams needed a single break to clinch the first set, before steamrolling through the second, with an increasingly assured display.
Serena Williams plays a backhand in her first round match against Camila Giorgi. Photo / Getty
"I thought it was solid," said Williams. "[It was] technically my second match of the year. I've had a long time off from tournament play [so] I thought I did pretty good; it's a great start to build on."
Her confidence was shown at 5-2 in the second set. Williams came back from a 15-40 deficit with some precise groundstrokes, before clinching the contest with an angled ace.
In front of a near-capacity crowd, the world No 10 took a while to get going. She had to fight hard in her second service game, fending off a break point, as she tried to find her groove. There were some sweetly struck shots, mixed in with a few mishits.
"It's definitely not easy," said Williams. "It's always hard to play early in the season."
As well as the conditions, the tenacity of Giorgi made it difficult; the 28-year-old Italian always raises her level to play Williams, shown at Wimbledon two years ago, when she took the first set before losing in three.
She ran, she harried and she chased, and most importantly she always forced Williams to play another shot. At times that made the 38-year-old uncomfortable, especially off the backhand.
"She got a lot of balls back but that's okay," said Williams. "I have to be able to beat people that get balls back too."
The turning point in the first set came in the eighth game; Williams lasered some ground strokes, and landed a backhand within millimetres of the line to set up a break, which she converted to lead 5-3. Williams was untroubled to close out the first set in 38 minutes, finished off by a vicious serve into the body.
In her 24th year on tour, Williams now cherishes the magic moments more.
"Usually when I hit a big shot I don't think about and now it's like 'oh that was nice'," said Williams. "I appreciate it more as opposed to even last year, I hit great shots and I just move on. It's nice to actually pat yourself on the back."
The second set was more clear cut. Williams broke Giorgi twice, as the Italian struggled on first serve, landing just 50 per cent.
Meanwhile, Kiwi wildcard Paige Hourigan was completely outclassed by former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki, losing 6-1 6-0.
Paige Hourigan of New Zealand. Photo / Getty
It always loomed as a one-sided contest – Wozniacki was playing in her 893rd match at this level, while Hourigan was making her WTA main draw debut — and so it proved.
The gulf in class was shown early, as Wozniacki won the first 11 points of the match.
Hourigan eventually settled, and had some moments of genuine quality, but they were few and far between, and she only won two points on the Wozniacki serve in the entire match.
She struggled to cope with the pace and precision of Wozniacki's game, and made a ton of unforced errors.
Hourigan, who is ranked world No 447, looked almost in tears as she sat in her chair at 5-0 down in the second set, and the Dane completed the rout in 53 minutes.
Third seed Amanda Anisimova was impressive in a 6-3 6-4 win over Kateryna Kozlova, while world No 15 Petra Martic, Frenchwoman Alize Cornet and Laura Siegemund (Germany) were among others to progress on Tuesday.
