Serena Williams, playing the 1,000th Tour-level match of her glittering career, suffered a shock 7-6 (6) 7-5 defeat by Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska in the Italian Open second round on Wednesday.

Playing her first competitive match in nearly three months, the 23-time grand slam champion twice came back from a break down, but struggled on her first serve as world number 44 Podoroska took the opening set in the tiebreak.

Podoroska, who reached the French Open semi-finals last year and has now recorded three wins over top-10 opponents in the last eight months, produced a string of heavy topspin forehands to take control of the match with an early break in the second set.

Although Podoroska was broken to love on her first attempt to serve out the match, she maintained her composure to break again and secure a place in the round of 16 after 1 hour, 58 minutes.

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“It’s special win,” the 24-year-old said.

Defeat for Williams, who received an opening-round bye in Rome, was a major blow to her preparations for the French Open, starting on May 30.

It was the American’s 149th defeat in her 1,000 career WTA matches.

“It’s tough to have a first match on clay,” Williams said.

“It was definitely kind of good to go the distance and to try to be out there, but clearly I can do legions better.”

The 39-year-old, who has four Italian Open trophies in her collection, admitted that she needed to play more matches before she could hit her stride again.

“Maybe I do need a few more matches, so I’m going to try to figure that out with my coach and my team and see what we would like to do,” she said.

“I have been training for months, but it feels definitely different on clay to make that last adjustment.”

Ash Barty rolls on as other big names fall

Meanwhile, world number one Ash Barty took a little time to find her feet on the Roman clay before easing into the last 16 of the Italian Open as other big names tumbled around her.

In her opening match on Wednesday, world number one Barty was given an early examination by Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova before the Australian reeled off 10 of the last 11 games to win 6-4 6-1 in 78 minutes.

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By the end, she was in the groove that saw her power to the Stuttgart title and last week’s final in Madrid as she sets her sights on another clay court title.

“I needed to give myself time to get used to conditions,” Barty said after the match.

“I always knew there was going to be a bit of an adjustment period and Slava’s got a game that can take it away from you quite quickly.”

Once Barty was in the mood, though, there was no doubt about her improving her record as the most prolific winner on the tour this year with her 26th victory.

“But I’m happy to be able to get another opportunity tomorrow, to work on a few things, and feel like I’m really getting myself into the tournament.”

Elsewhere, big names Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep both joined Williams in being high-profile early casualties at the Foro Italico.

World number two Naomi Osaka lost 7-6 (2) 6-2 to American Jessica Pegula.

Osaka, a four-time grand slam winner, has often struggled on clay and her defeat in Rome followed a second-round loss at the Madrid Open this month.

Halep, the 2018 winner at Roland Garros, was forced to retire from her match against Angelique Kerber.

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The Romanian later revealed she had suffered a tear in her left calf, raising doubts over her participation in the upcoming French Open, which begins on May 30.

Ajla Tomljanovic gave former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko a battle before being knocked out 6-2 7-6 (3) to leave Barty as the last Aussie woman standing in the singles.

ABC/wires



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