Whatever Serena Williams uses to motivate herself in difficult situations, it must work. The American must rate as one of the most august and obstinate competitors of her generation. Williams added another remarkable entry to her collection of Australian Open comebacks on Wednesday when she somehow extricated herself from a precarious position to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 5-7 7-5 6-1. The Russian served for the match in the second set, yet Williams, as she so often does, prevailed.
“I was thinking, ‘Okay, if you lose, you're going to fly coach all the way back to Florida’, how uncomfortable that would be. That motivated me to do a little better,” said Williams, who could probably afford a private jet if needed but clearly likes to punish herself with self-imposed poverty. “I wouldn't necessarily want to go back on a 16-hour flight. I wouldn't allow myself to have the emergency row either. I would be so mad, I would have to sit like the last row, the tightest row. That way, I wouldn't do it again.”
As motivational techniques goes, downgrading yourself was a doozie, but even without threatening herself with limited legroom, she would probably have found the inner resolve to get past Kuznetsova and set up a semifinal meeting with Elena Dementieva. Williams, you see, has a rare ability to get through matches when she is not playing at her best. It is the knack of a nine-time Grand Slam champion.
“It's really encouraging because this whole tournament I felt I've been off and I haven't been playing my best, especially to pull out that win today,” said Williams. “I was happy because I really wasn't playing my best today. My balls started flying. You know, I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is just not my best tennis, or even close to it’.”
As well as having to fend off a determined challenge from Kuznetsova, Williams also had to cope with conditions, at the start of the match, which were immensely challenging. The heat at Rod Laver Arena was such that it forced organisers to shut the roof after the first set, but until then it was a brutal test for both women. “Like I said, it was really an out‑of‑body experience. Like I felt I was watching someone play in a blue dress, and it wasn't me, because it was so hot out there. And I kept trying to tell myself that it's not hot, you know. But it got hotter,” said Williams.
Kuznetsova, meanwhile, like so many of Williams’ opponents before her, was left to wonder just how a match which was in her grasp was wrestled back so successfully by the three-time Australian Open champion. “I just have to improve a few moments which was missing today. I guess I've done too many unforced errors and I've been not serving so well in the important moments ‑ in the third set especially,” she said. “I got to work just in some ways. But I'm there, you know. It's not too far away. But this step is the most difficult one, and I just got to work on it.”
As for Dementieva, Williams will know exactly what to expect from last year’s Olympic gold medalist. “I think she's playing amazing. I think she's actually playing some of the best tennis on the tour,” said Williams. “She's really stepped up the level of her game to an unbelievable level. I'm going to have to play really well to do well tomorrow.”
Someone suggested that Williams had spoiled a potential all-Russian semifinal line-up by pulling off such a turnaround against Kuznetsova. It was clear from her answer that the thought had not occurred to her, even when she was staring at defeat, for the comeback queen does not go in for that sort of thing.
“You were expecting an all‑Russian final?” she asked. “Who was expecting that?”
No comments posted
