Serena Williams Battles to Win over Rebecca Peterson at 2019 Miami Masters

Serena Williams started her quest for a ninth Miami Masters title on Friday by battling to win over Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

Williams, who is seeded 10th, fought back from an early loss of serve in the opening set to eventually win it comfortably. However, Peterson rallied with some brilliant play in the second to enrich her hopes of an upset.

In the end, it was too much of an ask for the Swede, as Williams found a higher gear in the third set and was able to see the match out.

Next up for the American is a last-32 meeting with Wang Qiang, who earned an impressive 6-4, 6-0 win over Johanna Konta on Friday.

Williams Made to Work for Win over Peterson

Given this match was the first time Williams had played since her retirement against Garbine Muguruza at Indian Wells, it wasn't a massive shock to see she was slow out of the blocks. Peterson was able to capitalise, breaking in the first game.

However, the eight-time champion bounce backed immediately, and a tight remainder of the set followed. 

After moving 4-3 in front, Williams stepped up her game. As shown in the highlight below, she was not taking any prisoners with some of her shot selections:

A break followed, putting daylight between the two players for the first time. Then, as she so often does, Williams kept her cool to see out the opening set.

From that point on, it was anticipated Williams would play better, and at 1-1 in the second stanza, she had a chance to break Peterson again. The Swede dug deep on that point, though, and produced a stunning winner:

After going on to hold serve, the shot proved to be a turning point, as Peterson played her best tennis of the match.

Suddenly she appeared full of energy and invention, whereas Williams' play was suddenly besieged with errors. On serve, the 23-time Grand Slam champion was uncharacteristically sloppy, allowing her opponent to string together five games in a row and take the second set by a handsome margin.

Here's the moment the match was pushed to a decider:

Williams faced a break point in the first game of the third and was pumped up when she saved it. Following on from that, she had a renewed ferocity, and a double fault from Peterson handed Williams a 2-0 lead:

By this point, the momentum had shifted, and another hold from Williams meant Peterson had a huge mountain to climb.

While she did eventually get on the board to make it 3-1, it was too little too late, as the veteran saw out the decider 6-1.

For Williams, this type of match was to be expected after some time away from the court. After knocking some rust off in this opening encounter, Wang should be wary of an improved performance in the next round.