SYDNEY, Australia -- Serena Williams has overcome a glaring mistake by the chair umpire and a partisan crowd to win her first match of the season, a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory over Australian Samantha Stosur on Sunday at the Sydney International.
Last year's U.S. Open champion was serving for the match at 6-5 and 30-30 in the second set when the chair umpire failed to notice an obvious let call when Williams' serve hit the net and into the serving area. Williams didn't even bother to chase down Stosur's return, believing it to be a certain let.
Stosur was awarded the point and went on to break Williams and won the ensuing tiebreaker. Williams fought off four match points in the 10th game of the third set before breaking Stosur two games later to win the match.