Controversy

Serena Williams's first match of the year was marred by a controversial decision by the chair umpire, which she overcame to pull off a dramatic win in the tightest of matches against homegirl Samantha Stosur.

Serena Williams overcame a glaring mistake by the chair umpire and a partisan crowd to win her first match of the season, a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory over Australian Samantha Stosur on Sunday at the Sydney International.

Last year’s U.S. Open champion was serving for the match at 6-5 and 30-30 in the second set when the chair umpire failed to notice an obvious let call when Williams’ serve hit the net and into the serving area. Williams didn’t even bother to chase down Stosur’s return, believing it to be a certain let.

Stosur was awarded the point and went on to break Williams and won the ensuing tiebreaker. Williams fought off four match points in the 10th game of the third set before breaking Stosur two games later to win the match.

Until her late rally, Williams seemed visibly upset by the mistake. She spoke to the umpire, Asitha Attigala of Sri Lanka, at the end of the game and second set, but didn’t argue. At the end of the match, she shook his hand.

Williams acknowledged the incident had disrupted her game.

“I felt like I was going to win that second set,” she said after the match. “And then I hit a massive net cord and the guy didn’t call it. Even Sam knew it was a net cord. It was frustrating at that point. These types of things seem to happen to me a lot.”

Indeed they do. Why is anybody's guess. For reasons I'm too superstitious to type, I didn't want her to play this event in the first place.

But she overcame the umpire, the crowd, and four match points to advance.

Only Serena.