USA TODAY International Edition
S. Williams remembers lessons from practice loss
There wasn’t much to say about Serena Williams in terms of her ability to turn aside fellow American Nicole Gibbs 6- 1, 6- 3 in a 63minute, third- round win Saturday in the Australian Open.
It wasn’t until the next- to- last game, with Williams serving for the match at 6- 1, 5- 2, that the 22- time Grand Slam tournament champion faltered. Second- seeded Williams hadn’t given Gibbs a break- point opportunity to that point, and all of a sudden there were two. Williams saved the first, double- faulted the second and sailed a backhand wide to lose serve.
Since there isn’t all that much new to discover regarding the mechanics of Williams’ forehand, backhand and trademark serve, after the win it seemed like a good idea to take a walk down memory lane to the first time Serena and older sister Venus played in the Australian Open. The year was 1998, and they were quite self- assured young women of the teenage variety.
It isn’t how they fared in the women’s draw that remains in the mind of those who were in Melbourne at the time. However, just to record history properly, Serena reached the second round while Venus journeyed to the quarterfinals.
What was more intriguing at that Australian Open was that the two siblings had something of an inflated understanding of their abilities, developed from their being fresh- faced, and still in need of a few life lessons learned. So they marched into the men’s ATP office to announce rather confidently they were ready to beat any Tour player ranked around the top 200 if someone wanted to take the challenge.
It just so happened that Karsten Braasch, once a top- 40 player from Germany but at the time ranked 203rd, was in earshot. He thought it would be fun, so he stepped up to say he’d be happy to take them on.
The date was set, and the day arrived. Braasch played a warm- up round of golf in the morning, then came to Melbourne Park. The threesome went out to a back court, where each sister would have a oneset shot at Braasch. Word had spread around the grounds that the event was taking place, which caused tournament officials to restrict admittance to the area to only those with badges.
Braasch would smoke cigarettes and sip beer during the changeovers and, to be honest, no longer looked the part of a fit professional athlete. It made no matter. Braasch led 5- 0 against Serena before winning the set 6- 1 and then posted a 6- 2 set victory against Venus.
It was all in good fun, but 19 years later and a record six Australian Open titles later, Williams, laughingly, insisted recall of the event was not in her memory bank. “I forgot about that, actually,” she said, smiling. “Gosh, I don’t remember that at all. Gosh, that was forever ago. I don’t remember what year it was. I have a terrible memory.”
When asked how she might do against a guy ranked No. 200 today — that would be Noah Rubin, who gave Roger Federer a tough time before the great one ousted the young American qualifier 7- 5, 6- 3, 7- 6 ( 7- 3) in the second round Wednesday — she smartly didn’t venture a guess.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m pretty much focused on women’s tennis right now. I have to focus on that.”
And her attention at the moment is a direct gaze at No. 16 seed Barbora Strycova, a Czech who advanced to the fourth round earlier in the day with a 6- 2, 7- 5 win against 21st- ranked Caroline Garcia of France.
The previous two times Williams and Strycova have played were also in Grand Slams, but back in 2012. Williams won both encounters, in the Australian Open second round and Wimbledon first round.
“If it’s Serena, I’m looking forward to it,” said Strycova, whose best Grand Slam result is a quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon in 2014. “That’s why you train. That’s why you work hard, to play these matches on these stages, and against the best one.
“She’s a powerful player, and I’m so small. I would have to work hard, and I have to run a lot. It’s going to be a tough one, but I am also a tough player to play. I don’t give anything for free, and I fight all the time.”