No. 1 ranked Serena Williams had a huge scare from No. 7 Victoria Azarenka in the Quarterfinals of the Australian Open, but managed to pull out another amazing comeback to take the match 4-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-2.
Azarenka came out firing shots from everywhere on the court and Williams was completely on the defense, just blocking shots back, hitting many long or spraying them wide. Williams had not been broken on serve in her first four matches, 31 games. Then in the first two sets against Azarenka, she was broken 5 times. Williams looked completely disgusted the first set and a half, and the commentators described her as shell-shocked.
Broken twice in the second set and down 0-4, Williams began to get her game back, hitting out on the ball and hitting those zingers for which she is known. She came back to take the 2nd set to a tie-break which she won 7-4. The 3rd set pretty much belonged to Williams.
After the match, Serena told reporters, “I wasn’t playing my best, especially in the first two sets. I definitely think I played well in the third. But, you know, I was down the whole match from the first point until the end. I thought she was aggressive the whole time. She’s the kind of player you really have to take it to. I thought she played excellent.”
Azarenka had this to say: “I know she’s gonna fight until the last point (and) she started playing unbelievable from four-love. She really really went for her shots, and she made them. What was going through my head was I just had to hang in there and try to be more aggressive. The only thing I did is I probably backed up a little bit. I gave her more time to go for her shots. I mean, she was really in the zone at that point.” Azarenka added: “She knows how to handle herself, more experience, and I just have to learn from it.”
That win sets up a Semifinal meeting for Williams against 16th seed, Na Li of China.
