{"id":1171571,"date":"2022-08-09T12:28:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T12:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/09\/serena-williams-beats-nuria-parrizas-diaz-for-first-singles-win\/"},"modified":"2022-08-09T12:28:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T12:28:22","slug":"serena-williams-beats-nuria-parrizas-diaz-for-first-singles-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/09\/serena-williams-beats-nuria-parrizas-diaz-for-first-singles-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams beats Nuria Parrizas Diaz for first singles win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/126249122_serena_gettytwo-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"Serena Williams has won the National Bank Open title three times\" title=\"Serena Williams has won the National Bank Open title three times\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Serena Williams has won the National Bank Open title three times<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Serena Williams claimed her first singles win in 14 months as she beats Spain\u2019s Nuria Parrizas Diaz to reach the second round of the National Bank Open in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>The American great, 40, showed glimpses of her vintage ball striking in a 6-3 6-4 victory over the world number 57.<\/p>\n<p>Williams\u2019 last singles success was at the 2021 French Open.<\/p>\n<p>She will play either Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic or Tereza Martincova next.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Williams\u00a0made her singles return\u00a0at Wimbledon in June after a year out with injury after speculation she may retire.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what drove her to continue playing, she said: \u201cI guess there\u2019s just a light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLately that\u2019s been it for me. I can\u2019t wait to get to that light. I love playing, so it\u2019s amazing but, you know, I can\u2019t do this forever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes you just want to try your best to enjoy the moments and do the best that you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A three-time champion at the Toronto event, Williams was given warm and vocal support by the crowd in her first hard court match since the 2021 Australian Open.<\/p>\n<p>She and Parrizas Diaz exchanged breaks in the early stages, before a backhand smash gave the 23-time major winner a 5-3 lead and chance to serve for the set.<\/p>\n<p>Williams then saved a break point of her own, before finally taking the set on another smash at the net.<\/p>\n<p>Although her serve and movement were not at their best, she produced some superb defence to save another break point and keep the second set on serve.<\/p>\n<p>That continued into a 25-minute service game that saw nine deuces, with Williams somehow coming through to hold before breaking Parrizas Diaz in the next game.<\/p>\n<p>After converting her first match point, Williams congratulated her 31-year-old opponent, telling her she \u201cplayed really well\u201d before acknowledging the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>The Toronto competition is one of several warm-up events for the US Open, which begins on 29 August.<\/p>\n<p>Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and Simona Halep also advanced on the opening day\u2019s play.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"_2U1UnMowL0\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The sad story of Lamech Wiredu a Ghanaian Teacher - Badwam Afisem on Adom TV (9-8-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_2U1UnMowL0?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serena Williams has won the National Bank Open title three times Serena Williams claimed her first singles win in 14 months as she beats Spain\u2019s Nuria Parrizas Diaz to reach the second round of the National Bank Open in Toronto. The American great, 40, showed glimpses of her vintage ball striking in a 6-3 6-4 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1171573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1518,5265,22799,22800,9108,5075,4305,309],"class_list":["post-1171571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-beats","tag-diaz","tag-nuria","tag-parrizas","tag-serena","tag-singles","tag-williams","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1171571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1171571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1171571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1171571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}