“I Can’t Control God”: Venus Williams Encounters a Disappointing Exit From WTA Parma 2021

Venus Williams’ struggles on clay court continued as she lost her fourth successive match on the WTA Tour at Parma Open 2021 to Anna Schmiedlova. Schmiedlova improved her head-to-head record against Venus to 4-1.

Venus Williams comes back in the first set

It was a rusty start for Venus. But Schmiedlova was also out of sorts and gave a break early to Venus. However, Schmiedlova was the more proactive of the two in the early stages of the match. As Venus tried to find her feet, Schmiedlova looked to race away with the set.

From 1-0 down, Schmiedlova won four games in a row to lead the opening set 4-1 in the first 25 minutes of the match. Venus was all over the place with her shots, gifting points to Schmiedlova. The set went on until 5-2, where Venus saved two set points and her service game.

Later, at 5-3, Schmiedlova saw her third set point saved by Venus. The American broke Schmiedlova and bring serve parity to the set. Schmiedlova was choking and Venus was on form as she hit multiple strong backhands. Her sister Serena Williams was also watching her match. After being 5-2 ahead, Schmiedlova lost five games in a row as Venus took the first set 7-5.

Anna Schmiedlova’s comeback against Venus in the second set

After ending the first set on a high, Venus was in a precarious situation at the start of the second set. Quickly in under 15 minutes, she saw a 3-0 deficit. Schmiedlova had shrugged off the disappointment of the first set to march ahead.

Schmiedlova looked much more confident about her chances and thwarted any attempts from Venus. It looked like the heavy winds were troubling Venus’ serve. With winds over 10 mph, Venus took her time to serve and hence got a time violation. She later had a quarrel with the chair umpire regarding the wind.

“I can’t control god, I am just saying that wind blows, and there is nothing I can do about that. I can’t control god, talk to him,” Venus said.

The service hiccups were proving costly for Venus who was being stretched by Schmiedlova. The Slovakian was close to taking a 4-0 lead as well. But Venus saved it, but having not seen a breakpoint in the second set, it was slipping from her hand. Schmiedlova quickly broke Venus for the second time in the set and took the set 6-2.

Venus Williams’ collapses in the third set

The first two games of the third set were marathons. It took over 20 minutes as both the players exchanged breaks. Venus looked the more attacking player but with that came her errors. Schmiedlova also had her errors but was able to capitalize Venus’ mistakes as she took a 3-1 lead in the set.

But continuing the trend of the match, Schmiedlova was broken again, and the set was again at serve parity. However, the continuous decline of Venus’ serve gave a break back and Schmiedlova led 4-2. The Slovakian held her serve one last time to pressurize Venus’ serve. Schmiedlova was third time lucky as she broke Venus again and won the match – 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.