Pre-Match Analysis
Day 1 - Venus Williams vs. Vesna Dolonts
Head-to-head
| This is the first meeting between both players. | This is the first meeting between both players. |
Will win if...
| The first serve is going to be crucial for Venus tonight. Landing a high percentage of those will give her plenty of easy points and allow her to build up momentum. She's prone to making unforced errors after a long layoff, particularly on the forehand side, so she will need to work her way into the baseline rallies during the first set in order to shake off as much rust as possible. | It's critical that Dolonts gets off to a good start in the first few games of the match. Venus is known for being a slow starter in the early rounds of majors, so her best chance at winning is to play first-strike tennis and not give Venus a chance to get into a rhythm on her groundstrokes. |
Heading in...
| Injuries have plagued Williams in 2011 and limited her year to just three events. After retiring from her third-round match at the Australian Open with a right hip injury, Venus went M.I.A. until the grass court season. After a quarterfinal showing at Eastbourne and a fourth round loss at Wimbledon, Williams withdrew from Toronto and Cincinnati due to illness. | After reaching the quarterfinals at a WTA event on clay earlier this summer in Bastad, Dolonts has struggled on the hard courts. After losing in the second round at the WTA event in Baku, Dolonts went 1-2 in matches on the ITF Circuit. |
Look out for...
| Is Venus healthy? She hasn't played a match since Wimbledon due to injury and illness. | Is Dolonts healthy? She retired from her first round match at a $50,000 ITF event in Russia at the beginning of the month and hasn't played since. |
Know this stat
| Out of all the Grand Slams, Venus has posted her most consistent results at the US Open. She has never lost before the second week in 12 previous appearances and has advanced to the quarterfinals or beyond in 10 of those trips to Flushing. | Dolonts is looking for her first main draw win at the US Open. Her only other appearance in the main draw at Flushing was a first round loss in 2009. |
X-factor
| Is this Venus' last chance to win a US Open title? At 31, time is not on her side. The last US Open women's singles champion over the age of 30 was Martina Navratilova in 1987. | Has married life been helping Dolonts on the court? Formerly Vesna Mansieva, she got married at the end of last year and has since gone on to crack the top 100 for the first time in her career. |
