And Williams, ranked No. 5 in the world, also had plenty of reason to smile after the match. Her visiting Washington Kastles outlasted the Breakers, 18-16.
Or maybe Williams, 26, only let out a sigh, after comments she made a pre-match press conference.
“[World Team Tennis] is different,” said Williams, who made it to the Wimbledon women’s singles final on July 5. She lost to older sister Venus Williams, then came back with Venus hours later and won the women’s doubles final.
“Every game counts [in WTT], so it gets little stressful because every game counts,” Serena Williams said. “I was telling my teammates, ‘I don’t know, I’d rather play Wimbledon semifinals.’
“Sometimes I just can’t deal with the stress,” she added with a laugh.
Williams, 26, did fine Sunday for the Kastles (4-3) against Newport Beach (2-5). She played mixed doubles, women’s doubles and women’s singles. Williams and Kevin Kim defeated Van’t Hof and new Breaker Lilia Osterloh in mixed doubles, 5-2, to open the match.
But Osterloh and Michaela Pastikova then topped Williams and Mashona Washington, 5-3, in women’s doubles, while Ramon Delgado and Van’t Hof then cruised to a 5-0 men’s doubles victory to put the Breakers up, 12-8. It was Delgado and Van’t Hof’s second straight doubles win after starting the season 0-5.
Williams then blanked Osterloh in women’s singles, 5-0, to put the Kastles up, 13-12. But the Breakers, coming off a super-tiebreaker loss at Sacramento on Saturday, had to feel good about the situation. The last set would feature their closer — Delgado — in men’s singles.
