Danka Kovinic jokingly said that experiencing “the worst of the worst” against Ashleigh Barty helped her relax ahead of the Serena Williams match. At 2021 Australian Open, Kovinic exited the tournament in the first round after Barty handed her a 6-0 6-0 defeat.
Going into her US Open first round match versus 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams, Kovinic knew that the whole Arthur Ashe Stadium would be rooting against her. Also, Kovinic was playing one of the most dominant players in tennis history.
In the end, Kovinic didn’t win but also didn’t embarass herself as Williams won 6-3 6-3.
Kovinic on playing Williams
“It was better than I expected,” Kovinic said, via Tennis Majors. “I mean, the atmosphere on court, I thought that I would be a bit more nervous once I stepped out there.
But I didn’t have any kind of these feelings. I was very calm. I was keep telling myself just to enjoy and to take every moment of the match. I kind of have feeling that I played better than the score says. I had great time out there.
I really enjoyed it, every second of the match. In some moments during the match I couldn’t hear my shots and also hers. Sometimes it’s very tough to see when she hit the ball if it’s going deep or short. That was one thing definitely on the outside courts, we don’t have this experience.
Everyone was telling me that this is maybe the loudest court in tennis. It was really loud in some moments, yes. I experienced loss to Ashleigh Barty in Melbourne 6-0, 6-0. I was like, It cannot be worse than that, even against Serena”.
Kovinic has now dropped her last six matches. Kovinic hasn’t won a match since late May, when she defeated Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the French Open first round.
