Serena Williams returned to the WTA Tour this week after her 4th round loss at Wimbledon to Marion Bartoli to defeat Anastasia Rodionova 6-0 6-0 (ouch) at the Bank of the West tournament in Palo Alto, CA. It was her first hard court match on U.S. soil since the 2009 U.S. Open semifinal where the defending champion was eliminated from the tournament by a point penalty on match point after verbally berating an official who inexplicably had called a foot fault on a second serve at 4-5, deuce.
Bartoli won this tournament by defeating Venus Williams last year, so we shall see if she has to go through another Williams sister to defend her title.