World number three Alcaraz, 20, missed a month prior to Madrid with a forearm issue
tennis9 hours ago
The seven-time Grand Slam champion beat tenacious Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) and said she was always working to keep her place among the sport’s elite.
“In the off-season I’m always thinking of ways to improve and add to my game,” she said.
“Obviously with professional sports you can’t remain stagnant.
“Every off-season I’m thinking of which ways I can play better,” she added, before declining to say exactly what changes she had made.
Whatever the adjustments were, they seemed to work as Williams won the first set comfortably.
However, she was made to work a lot harder for the second by the Australian, who is returning to the tour after recovering from shoulder surgery.
In the end it took the sixth seed one hour, 47 minutes to subdue Dellacqua and book a fourth round meeting with 17th seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone, who upset 10th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-2 earlier in the day.
“Obviously a big part of her game is her foot speed,” Williams said of Schiavone.
“She moves really well, she’s also just really determined and has a fighting spirit.
“I feel like she does everything well off both sides. Good forehand and backhand. Pretty strong serve. She really just does everything well.”
Williams played well initially against Dellacqua, breaking her twice in the first set but found the Australian left-hander’s serve a lot harder to read in the second.
At the same time Williams’ serve, which had worked well early, went off the boil allowing Dellacqua to stay in the match.
But Williams recovered in the tiebreak and cleared away to a 6-1 lead, which the Australian wildcard never looked likely to pin back.
“It was my third lefty in a row, which is a little unusual,” Williams said.
“You know, hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the rhythm of playing right handers.
“But I think she played really well in the second set. I had a lot of chances to go up breaks at 4-1 or 5-2, and she just hung in there and kept playing tough.”
“I played a really good tiebreaker, so that was good.”
World number three Alcaraz, 20, missed a month prior to Madrid with a forearm issue
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