13th May, 2021
Agency Reports
Tennis legend Serena Williams, whose 1000th match in Rome ended in defeat on Wednesday, has accepted a wild-card invitation to play at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma.
The tournament starts this weekend.
Venus Williams, Serena’s sister, also accepted a wild-card invitation to Parma, organizers said.
Serena accepted the Parma invitation immediately after she lost in straight sets to Argentine Nadia Podoroska at the Italian Open.
It was her first match in nearly three months.
“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,” Williams said.
Her conqueror Podoroska, a semifinalist at last year’s French Open, gave her enough signals to do a reality check on her preparedness for the French Open, starting end of May.
“I have been training for months, but it feels definitely different on clay to make that last adjustment,” Serena said.