SCG SPIN RETURNS FOR LYON
TWO days ago, Test skipper Tim Paine implored curators around Australia to retain the unique characteristics of the nation’s wickets, after India spun its way to victory against England on a dust bowl in Chennai.
Right on cue, the SCG wicket played like the raging turner it used to be as Test tweaker Nathan Lyon put Victoria to the sword with a spinning masterclass for NSW.
With the ball turning and bouncing, Lyon snared 6-21 — a far cry from his 2-201 in the third Test when India salvaged a draw on a wicket that didn’t deteriorate as was expected.
Lyon’s haul came after Victorian spinner Jon Holland took 3-38 in a match evenly poised as the visitors were all out for 200. They have a lead of just 35, after losing 8-48 in a collapse brought on by Lyon and the pitch.
But question marks remain over Test quick Mitchell Starc, who looked a shadow of the bowler he has been. The leftarmer conceded 44 off his first six overs and finished with 0-71 from 14 overs.
FIND OUT IF DJOKER MADE THE FINAL
WAS it the moment when reality struck?
Serena Williams had seemingly been in control of her emotions as she fended off the opening few questions about her semi-final loss to Naomi Osaka.
She’d already been quizzed about the pausing on Rod Laver Arena before she exited, the wave to the crowd and the grabbing of her heart.
Asked what was going through her head at that moment, she said: “I don’t know. The Aussie crowd is so amazing, so it was nice to see.”
The quick follow-up question suggested how the action might be perceived by some as “almost saying farewell”.
This actually brought smile to Williams’ face.
“I don’t know. If I ever say farewell, I wouldn’t tell anyone,” she said.
But clearly something had clicked and as the next questioner asked why she’d made so many errors in the semifinal, even offering if it was just a bad day at the office, Williams started getting emotional.
She quickly put her hand to her face and said: “I don’t know. I’m done.”
And with that she grabbed her pass off the desk and bolted from the media conference room in tears.
Those two final words could end up being very prophetic.
It’s possible a number of realisations struck the game’s greatest female player in the fallout from her first Australian Open semi-final loss (she’d been 8-0 previously).
The chase for the magical No.24 has almost become a poisoned chalice.
Williams has been stranded on 23 major titles for four years – one shy of Margaret Court’s record.
The last time she won a a
grand slam was at the 2017 Australian Open, when she was pregnant, and she’s been in four finals since and lost them all.
In 2018 Angelique Kerber beat her at Wimbledon and Osaka won her first grand slam against Williams at the US Open.
The following year Simona Halep defeated Williams at Wimbledon before Bianca Andreescu shocked many by winning her first grand slam title against Williams in New York.
There were reasons behind some of those losses, with the obvious factor being her return to the sport after the birth of her daughter.
But no one was too surprised about how quickly she clicked back into gear because it was Serena and Serena does those sorts of things.
She has always thumbed her nose at convention, had her own set of rules.
But what she can’t change is the fact she’s 39 and that clock that she’s previously refused to acknowledge is starting to run out of batteries.
Williams saw a version of herself on Thursday in the way Osaka, who is 16 years younger, dismantled her.
It was brutal at times as the she had no answer to what was coming back from the other side of the net.
“Make a shot. Make a shot,” she screamed to herself at the start of the second set.
Before her walkout from the press conference, Williams had described the match as a “big errors day”.
She felt she had a chance to be 5-0 up early but had been her own worst enemy.
That was clearly window dressing as a couple of minutes later she was in tears and running out the door as the reality of her situation hit.