Williams makes short work of Halep to put a shot across the bows
The good news for Ash Barty is that only one of Serena Wiliams and Naomi Osaka can make the Australian Open final. The bad news is that one of them is certain to be waiting there for Barty if she makes it.
Williams completed the contract to play Osaka in a semi-final on Tuesday night by blasting the highly accomplished Romanian Simona Halep, the No.2 seed, off their court in their quarter-final. It was 6-3, 6-3.
“This is the best match I’ve played in the tournament for sure,” Williams said on court. “It had to be, going up against the No.2 seed. I knew I had to be better, and I was, and I’m excited.”
There was an early omen, alarming for Halep. Williams did not so much smash Halep’s second serve back at her as spike it into her court. “I just saw it and it looked like a donut, and I went for it,” she said later, downplaying her intent.
But her look then seemed to say that this was personal, and perhaps it was: they last met two years ago in the Wimbledon final, and Halep won it.
Halep does a mean look of her own. It says, this is nothing personal, I’d do it to a kitten if I had to. But the kitten would have been safe enough this night with Williams to defend it.
Serena Williams’ power was on show against Halep. Credit:Getty Images
The terms were clear. It was Williams’s power versus Halep’s power to absorb it. In women’s tennis, that’s pi, the constant of these last two decades. It means that no matter what the rankings say, Williams is a permanent co-top seed in any major.
Halep said Williams’ weight of shot would not concern her. “I’m not scared of the power that is in tennis right now, because I have experience,” she said pre-match. “I played many times with these players, and I beat most of them.”
But Williams’ power did tell. Worse for Halep, it wasn’t all she had. Conscious that at 39 years old, her strength might – might – be diminishing, Williams toiled between seasons to recover her youthful alacrity.
“I’ve worked really hard on my movement,” she had said. “Yeah, I like retrieving balls. I mean, obviously I like to be on the offence, but I can play defence really well.” And here it was. It left Halep without an angle.
But Halep without angles is still Halep. She won’t take 0-40 for an answer. She had chances. Her tenacity saw to that. She has made a career with her back to the wall, that is, far behind the baseline.
By force of her on-court personality, she stole breaks on Williams early in the second set. “What’s happening?” Williams asked her corner. In an empty arena, there are no secrets. What did happen is that Williams kept stealing the breaks back.
“I made a lot of unforced errors in those games I lost,” she said. “I had a lot of opportunities. I just had to play better.”
Halep foiled for a long time, but she, too, made errors. It’s what happens when you know that anything off-pace will come back at you with interest, fees and charges. Halep wasn’t humiliated, but she was put in her place.
Done, Williams rejoiced to think that she was still capable of new tricks. “I can make leaps and bounds and improve really fast,” she said, involuntarily looking up into the emty stands. “Over my career, that’s something that’s been super good in my game. I know I have the legs. It’s exciting.”
To her, yes. To Osaka and Barty, not so much.
Greg Baum is chief sports columnist and associate editor with The Age.