Serena Williams Overcomes Blood Clots At Australian Open, Wins First-Round Match [VIDEO]

Serena Williams has an interesting history at the Australian Open. Her 23rd major title was at the Open two years ago, when she won 6-0, 6-2 in 49 minutes. Success has come often for Williams, so another title isn’t very impressive for her. The fact that she was pregnant while beating out the competition was.

Williams Reaches Australian Open’s Second Round

Now she returns to Australia in hopes of tying Margaret Court for the all-time record of 24 singles titles. Williams currently has the most in the Open era.

Her sister, 38-year-old Venus, was seeded 36th and took on Romania’s No. 25 seed Mihaela Buzarnescu in the first round. Williams had to give it her all to beat Buzarnescu 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2.  After the match, Williams said: “It was pretty hairy there. I hope that this tough match will prepare me for the rest of the tournament.” Venus has reached the final round twice in the open. Her most recent appearance came in 2017 when she lost to Serena. Now, she’ll meet Alize Cornet next.

Serena was the 16th seed. She won her first match by defeating unseeded 31-year-old German Tatjana Maria 6-0, 6-2 on Monday, her first victory since her angry rant against umpire Carlos Ramos at last year’s US Open final. Reporters brought up the incident and asked if Williams had prepared after the incident. She replied: “I literally have no comment.”

The American superstar will face Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in the next round. Throughout the match, Williams wore compression socks and said that there were “definitely still concerns” about the threat of deep vein thrombosis. “I have had some issues and they’re not done,” she added. Williams experienced the potentially life-threatening blood clots after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia.

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“It’s just something I have to do for pretty much probably the rest of my career, we’ll see. But I’m always at the doctor. With DVTs, it’s very scary. I know a lot of people – they’re very common – have them. Especially for me, it’s incredibly frightening. I lay on the side of precaution as opposed to not.”

The fact that Williams plays on in spite of the condition is a testament to her skill. Bouchard, a former world No. 5, called Williams “the greatest ever.”