Sam took care of business in her first match since Wimbledon, first match as a top five player, first match as a top seed, beating Christina "Snooki" McHale 1 and 5. She cruised through the first set before Snooki (she's from Jersey and her on-court fashions are...questionable) amped up her game and started playing more aggressively. Sam continued to hold serve but had to save six break points, four in the last game when she tried to serve for it and found herself down 0-40.
Her forehand left her quite a bit in that second set and she's tried to employ a low and short slice backhand that she's been working on in practice, but with no success. But it was still a fairly easy win and the good news, if you're a Sam fan, is that she didn't get broken in the match. The serve is still wickity-wickity-wickty-whack.
That's right. That shoulder pays the bills, Dave.
Stinky feet!
I do enjoy Sam's pressers. She's just so direct about everything. "Does it feel any different being ranked in the top five?" "Well....it's good. [pause] I like it. (laughter)" And really, she was laughing because we were laughing.
Match clips after the jump.
