Serena Williams had to suffer a devastating defeat recently. Fortunately for the American’s chances of progressing to the latter stages of Australian Open 2009, it did not come against Shuai Peng in the third round, whom she beat 6-1 6-4 on Saturday despite being a break down in the second set.
No; the loss which has burrowed its way in Williams’ consciousness came on American quiz show Million Dollar Password, in which celebrities partner contestants in trying to guess the password from each other’s clues. So far, so simple - except that Williams learned quite quickly that being the winner of nine Grand Slam titles does not guarantee that you are going to very good at guessing games. “It didn't go so well. I couldn't give the people the right clues. It was fun to be on prime time. It was really exciting. So many people saw it,” said Williams. She was so bad that Williams, who is arguably the most cussed competitor of her generation, actually felt compelled to fall on her sword to avoid losing her contestant partner any more money. “I was excited I lost because I was thinking, ‘I don't want to take another person down with me’, 'cause I wasn't doing that great. It was definitely a lot harder than I thought. I had a lot of practice. You know, I love to play games. I should do it again, because I had a lot of fun.”
Playing games is something Williams is something is usually exceptionally good at when doing her day job. She was certainly too good for Peng - despite the latter’s dogged resistance in the second set - and came from a break down to get herself on and off without too much drama. Williams found it hard to put her finger on why she had found the second set so much tougher than the first, though Peng’s improved play had plenty to do with the temporary momentum shift. Williams regrouped and broke when the Chinese was serving to stay in the match, and will be glad to have conserved a bit of energy for her last 16 meeting with Amelie Mauresmo’s conqueror, Victoria Azarenka.
“I seem to play well when I get down, for whatever reason. So once I got down, I was a little frustrated,” said Williams. “I was like, ‘You know, Serena, sometimes you just play better when you're down’. I started playing better. I'm feeling a little rusty, for whatever reason. I'm hoping my next round I'll be a little better.”
Williams spoke kindly about Azarenka, who was an exceptionally accomplished junior but who has taken a while to make a similar mark in the women’s game. The Belarussian hit with accuracy and power against Mauresmo, and should be good enough to test Williams almost as much as that quiz show did. “I think I played her here before, same round, same stage, I think. I saw her play a lot in Brisbane a couple weeks ago. I've been watching her. She's been around for a while,” said Williams. “Obviously she's young and desperate to win and hungry, all the qualities that it takes to be pretty good. I just get that satisfaction on whoever I play, you know. Obviously when you play younger players, you want to do well. At the same time, some of these girls are twice my size in height, so it doesn't matter.”
Azarenka is not quite that tall, and she’ll need to be at maximum sharpness to trouble Williams. If all else fails, she can always ask her to play Million Dollar Password …
No comments posted
