Tennis: Serena Williams puts aside slow start to reach 3rd round of US Open

New York • The enormity of what is at stake for Serena Williams at the U.S. Open — the first true Grand Slam in more than a quarter of a century — hit her Wednesday.

That, she said, is why her play was so uneven in the second round at Flushing Meadows, despite facing a qualifier ranked 110th.

And it's why, after the 10 double-faults, two dozen other unforced errors and an all-around sloppy first set, Williams got pointers from coach Patrick Mouratoglou and headed straight to a practice court to put in work, hoping to repair what plagued her during a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over Kiki Bertens of Netherlands.

"Today, I was a little tight," Williams said. "I think it showed."

Sure did. She got broken early. She double-faulted four times — yes, four — in one game. She didn't earn a break point against the strong-serving Bertens until the 10th game. Williams trailed 5-3 in the first set, finally broke for 5-all, but then needed to erase a 4-0 deficit in the tiebreaker.

All attributable, at least in part, to thinking about what she is trying to accomplish.

"Until today, I was OK with it. I just got a little nervous today," the 33-year-old American said. "But I've been doing totally fine. I've been completely relaxed, chill. I've been really, really fine. So I'm going to get back into the place that I was, and I'll be fine again."

She has won the past four major titles, a streak that began at last year's U.S. Open, and 21 overall. If she can win five more matches at Flushing Meadows — starting in the third round against Bethanie Mattek-Sands in an all-U.S. matchup Friday — Williams would complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam in tennis since Steffi Graf in 1988.

"Right now, she's on a mission to get a record," said Mattek-Sands, a 30-year-old wild-card entry, "and I'm here, playing my game."

Up and down all afternoon in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the No. 1-seeded Williams had trouble finding her game against Bertens, who only once made it as far as the third round in 14 majors.

Perhaps Williams was a tad rusty. In the first round, Williams' opponent, Vitalia Diatchenko, hurt her left foot while running sprints before the match and could barely move. Williams won 32 of 37 points in that one, which lasted about a half-hour until Diatchenko stopped playing while down 6-0, 2-0.

Meanwhile, Mardy Fish's last U.S. Open memory will be of the Louis Armstrong Stadium crowd roaring for him.

Failing to serve out the match, his legs cramping badly at the end — those details are less important than the fact he was there.

The 33-year-old American's career ended Wednesday in the second round with a five-set loss to 18th-seeded Feliciano Lopez. Before this year, he hadn't been back to the U.S. Open since 2012, when Fish withdrew because of a panic attack before his fourth-round meeting with Roger Federer.

He played little after that as he struggled with anxiety disorder, but Fish decided for one last hurrah this summer on the hard-court circuit, culminating with the U.S. Open.

"I accomplished everything that I set out to this summer," Fish said, "and I'm happy about that."

His summer almost stretched on at least two more days. Fish had a chance to serve out the match in the fourth set but made three straight unforced errors then double-faulted to be broken.

"Didn't pick a great time to play the worst game I played all day," he said. "I haven't been in that position in a long time, obviously. So things happen."