Serena advances thanks to Plan B
With her serve misfiring and the ball coming back at her from some irregular angles, it was time for Serena Williams to go to Plan B.
Williams knuckled down and just scrapped her way to a 7-5, 6-4 win over No 16-seeded Barbora Strycova yesterday to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the 11th time.
Despite four service breaks — two in the first four games — and 46 unforced errors, and with the fluky net cord and the offbalance, scrunched-shouldered backhand that bounced flatly and clinched her the first set on her eighth set point, she ground down Strycova.
‘‘It’s good to know I have a Plan B, or Option 2. I wasn’t serving my greatest today, also she was putting a lot of returns in there,’’ said Williams, who had a first-serve percentage of 45, and made four double-faults. ‘‘I feel like it was really good for me to win on probably not my best day, which is always good, because sometimes you rely on one shot and if it goes off, and then, like, what happens now?
‘‘It was really good for me to almost lose that so I know my other game is going pretty good, too.’’
That keeps Williams on track in her bid for an Open-era record 23rd grand slam title. If she gets there, the 35-year-old American will regain the No 1 ranking as well from Angelique Kerber.
Next up, she’ll face No 9 Johanna Konta, who beat Ekaterina Makarova for the second straight year in the fourth round. The 2016 semifinalist was only broken once and broke Makarova four times in the 6-1, 6-4 win.
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1999 as a 17-yearold and, after a long, difficult time off the tour, she has returned to the quarterfinals of a major for the first time since.
She beat US qualifier Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-2 and will next play either US Open finalist Karoline Pliskova or Daria Gavrilova. Whatever comes of it, the 34-year-old Croatian said she’d make the most of the moment.
On the men’s side, No 11 David Goffin reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the first time after beating eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2.
He’ll next play No 15-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, who closed with an ace to hold off No 117 wildcard entry Denis Istomin 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-1.
Istomin, who upset six-time champion Novak Djokovic in the second round, needed repeated treatment on his tiring legs in the third and fourth sets.
Djokovic’s loss was one of the big upsets in a chaotic first week capped by the fourth-round exits of both top seeds on Sunday.
Kerber, who beat Williams in the final last year and then ended the 22-time grand slam winner’s 186-week streak at No 1 by winning the US Open, was upset in a straight-sets loss to CoCo Vandeweghe.
Top-ranked and five-time finalist Andy Murray was upset by No 50-ranked Mischa Zverev.