Serena Williams squandered four match points and blew a 5-1 lead in the deciding set as seventh seed Karolina Pliskova produced an epic fightback to claim a 6-4 4-6 7-5 quarter-final win over the American great at the Australian Open here on Wednesday.
Karolina Pliskova
Melbourne:
Pliskova avenged her quarter-final loss to Serena at the 2018 US Open and now holds an enviable 2-1 GS record against the American, having beaten her in the 2016 semi-finals at Flushing Meadows. The 26-year-old former world number one, chasing her maiden GS title, is the second Czech into the semi-finals after Petra Kvitova thrashed Ashleigh Barty on Tuesday.
Locked in a three-way battle with Naomi Osaka and Kvitova to take the world number one spot from Simona Halep, Pliskova will emerge as the top-ranked woman if she claims the title. Serena, seeded 16th, rolled her ankle when serving for the match at 5-1. She promptly double-faulted after missing a passing shot on her first match point. She was then broken after dumping a backhand into the net.
Pliskova held on grimly, saving three more match points when serving to stay alive at 4-5, before breaking Serena to love and charging to 40-0 in the final game. Serena saved two match points, the second with a courageous backhand winner, but Pliskova held firm to add another highlight to a tournament laden with upsets.
Osaka reaches Melbourne semis
US Open champion Naomi Osaka managed to keep a lid on her simmering temper and powered to a 6-4 6-1 win over Elina Svitolina to book a spot in the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time.
The 21-year-old committed a string of unforced errors, but still proved too strong for the sixth-seeded Ukrainian. Osaka wrapped up the win in an hour and 12 minutes to become the first Japanese woman to reach the last four at Melbourne Park since Kimiko Date in 1994. Osaka’s first GS triumph at the US Open last year was overshadowed by a row between Serena and umpire Carlos Ramos, but there will be no rematch of that as the American bowed out earlier in the day.
Williams, chasing a milestone 24th Grand Slam triumph, also saved two match points in the last game, but netted on the third as the big-serving Czech shocked a packed Rod Laver Arena. The American’s hopes of matching Margaret Court’s all-time record of GS singles titles were denied once more, after losing finals at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
Pliskova avenged her quarter-final loss to Serena at the 2018 US Open and now holds an enviable 2-1 GS record against the American, having beaten her in the 2016 semi-finals at Flushing Meadows. The 26-year-old former world number one, chasing her maiden GS title, is the second Czech into the semi-finals after Petra Kvitova thrashed Ashleigh Barty on Tuesday.
Locked in a three-way battle with Naomi Osaka and Kvitova to take the world number one spot from Simona Halep, Pliskova will emerge as the top-ranked woman if she claims the title. Serena, seeded 16th, rolled her ankle when serving for the match at 5-1. She promptly double-faulted after missing a passing shot on her first match point. She was then broken after dumping a backhand into the net.
Pliskova held on grimly, saving three more match points when serving to stay alive at 4-5, before breaking Serena to love and charging to 40-0 in the final game. Serena saved two match points, the second with a courageous backhand winner, but Pliskova held firm to add another highlight to a tournament laden with upsets.
Osaka reaches Melbourne semis
US Open champion Naomi Osaka managed to keep a lid on her simmering temper and powered to a 6-4 6-1 win over Elina Svitolina to book a spot in the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time.
The 21-year-old committed a string of unforced errors, but still proved too strong for the sixth-seeded Ukrainian. Osaka wrapped up the win in an hour and 12 minutes to become the first Japanese woman to reach the last four at Melbourne Park since Kimiko Date in 1994. Osaka’s first GS triumph at the US Open last year was overshadowed by a row between Serena and umpire Carlos Ramos, but there will be no rematch of that as the American bowed out earlier in the day.