Osaka extends Williams’s wait for 24th
MUMBAI: It came out of the blue. Serena Williams analysed her loss as a “big error day” and spoke about how she was “hitting well this whole tournament”. She was asked about her walk from the Rod Laver Arena into the exit tunnel, during which she stopped and waved to the crowd with one hand on her heart. Are we to take it as a farewell sign? “Um,” Williams smiled. “I don’t know. If I ever say farewell, I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
A couple of seconds later, Williams grabbed her bottle under her chair and took a few sips of water while listening to the next question on her high error count. She hung her head, took a deep breath, looked up and said “I don’t know.” She fought back tears. “I’m done,” she muttered and walked away, abruptly ending her chat after three-and-a-half minutes.
Just a couple of days ago, seated on that same chair after her quarter-final win, Williams was replying tongue-in-cheek about how for the first time since “the summer of 1926” she felt like the long rallies belonged to her. Perhaps, she also believed that the 2021 Australian Open might belong to her. On the faster hard courts on offer this year, Williams looked most at home in Melbourne, her booming serves and power game in perfect pitch with the conditions.
Until Thursday, when Naomi Osaka blunted that very power game with equal and greater force, thrashing Williams 6-3, 6-4 in the semi-finals. It extended the 39-year-old’s Grand Slam draught to four years, as well as her quest for a record-equalling 24th singles title that has seen Williams fall short at four finals and two semifinals in that time.
The 39-year-old came into the season-opening tournament having recovered from an Achilles injury that forced her to withdraw from the French Open last year and having pulled out of the warm-up WTA tournament with a shoulder niggle. But all doubts surrounding her physical shape and readiness were put to the backburner in the opening two rounds, where she dropped just five games.
Being lethal with winners, moving swiftly on court and serving thunderbolts at 202km/ hr—the fastest in the tournament among the women so far— Williams was bullying opponents like she has so often in her prime. She only dropped a set en route to the semis, against the in-form Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round. She demolished second seed Simona Halep 6-3, 6-3 in the last-eight, returning the Romanian’s treatment to her in the 2019 Wimbledon final.
On Thursday, she ran into a younger rival cut from the same cloth. After being a break down and saving another break point to begin the first set, it was Osaka’s turn to dictate, going 4-2 up from 0-2. Finding power and precision in equal measure from the baseline, the 23-year-old got an early break in the second set but gifted it away with three double faults to give Williams a look in at 4-4.
But two backhand winners— one down the line and one crosscourt— in the following game got Osaka the break back, and the Japanese finished the contest with another crisp backhand winner in a run of eight straight points. One stat stood out: Osaka won 25 rallies of more than four shots to Williams’s 12.
The long rallies, in this match, belonged to Osaka, who now has a 3-1 win-loss record against her idol and will gun for her fourth Slam trophy on Saturday against 22nd seed American Jennifer Brady.
For Williams—who won her 23rd title at the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant—the trend of losing to the younger generation of women’s tennis since her return to the tour in 2018 only seems to be getting harder to reverse. If Angelique Kerber won’t get her (2018 Wimbledon final), Osaka will (2018 US Open final); if Karolina Pliskova won’t get her (2019 Australian Open quarters), Sofia Kenin will (2019 Roland Garros Round 3).
In the two other Slams between her return from maternity and the start of this season, Williams withdrew due to injuries. At 39, it’s a race against time for Williams to be in a position where she can feel physically supreme off court and in control of the long rallies on it, like she did at this Australian Open.
Maybe, it explains the sudden outburst of emotion after the match. Maybe, this stung more.
Meanwhile, men’s defending champion Novak Djokovic declared himself fighting fit for the final after ending the incredible run of Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev with his “best match” of the tournament on Thursday. The Serbian world number one eased into his ninth decider at Melbourne Park with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.