By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, February 12, 2021
Serena Williams rallied from 3-5 down defeating Anastasia Potapova to set up a blockbuster fourth-rounder vs. Aryna Sabalenka.
Photo credit: Matt King/Getty
A sluggish Serena Williams’ looked out of step as another Anastasia Potapova shot streaked past.
Displaced by the Russian’s drives, Williams caught a lifeline when Potapova spit up five double faults serving for the set at 5-3.
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Unleashing a snapping serve, fierce defense and strong survival skills, Williams scraped through 7-6(5), 6-2 into the Australian Open fourth round for the 16th time in 20 Melbourne appearances.
“Definitely feels good to be in the fourth round—it felt good to get through the match,” Williams told Jelena Dokic in her on-court interview. “I felt I came off, not off to the starting blocks that I would want to, and like I have been since I’ve been playing here.
“It’s about surviving and playing better every round.”
The four-time Olympic gold medal champion knows she must lift her level against fourth-round opponent Aryna Sabalenka, who is playing for her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
A year ago, Williams permitted just three games to Potapova in the AO opening round.
In today's rematch, the 19-year-old Russian came out ripping the ball.
Avid art collector Williams was leaking errors across the court as if mimicking drips and dabs of a Jackson Pollock painting. Seeing Potapova tighten up in double-fault disarray in that ninth game inspired Williams to put some more air under her shots, play down the middle more and rely on her 39-year-old legs and defensive skills to spark the comeback.
The former No. 1 pumped nine aces, saved nine of 12 break points and after sloppy start that saw her take a bathroom break after the warm-up and struggle to land shots between lines, Williams dug in, ran with vigor and showed tenacity during a four-game run to take charge in the second set.
“She’s a young player and very good I was just not striking in that first set,” Williams told ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs afterward. “I was making errors. I was slow. Everything I practiced I wasn’t.
“I thought if I can just get through this and hang in there and that’s what I did at one point I just started playing defense because it’s the only thing I can do but it worked out.”
The American’s fast-twitch muscles weren’t firing and she compounded her issues brain-cramping with a tame drop shot. Potapova pounded a backhand breaking again for 5-3 with a shout.
As Williams unforced error count climbed to 19, Potapova torched a forehand for set point only to misfire on the next point. Jitters erupted into catastrophic serving as the Russian coughed up five double faults, including two in a row to hand back the break.
Thrown a lifeline, Williams tugged it winning a 17-shot rally then rapping an ace. Forty-six minutes into the match, Williams threw down her fourth ace to level after 10 games.
Each time Potapova made a push, Williams shoved back. Down 3-5 in the tiebreaker, Williams reeled off four points in a row.
A crackling 21-shot rally escalated with tremendous defense from Williams, who drew a netted forehand then raised a fist of relief.. Swinging more freely, Williams rolled through four straight games holding with a serve winner wide for a 4-1 second-set lead.
The seven-time Australian Open champion raised her Melbourne record to 90-12 and her career Grand Slam mark to 360-51—two wins shy of matching Roger Federer’s record of 362 career major victories.
Continuing her quest to match Margaret Court’s major mark and win her 24th Grand Slam title, Williams set up a blockbuster fourth-round clash vs. Aryna Sabalenka in a battle of two of tennis’ most explosive players.
The seventh-seeded Sabalenka overpowered 20-year-old American Ann Li 6-3, 6-1.
The red-hot Belarusian burst through eight of the last nine games to reach the AO round of 16 for the first time in four appearances.
Sabalenka has won 23 of her last 26 matches and is pumped for her first encounter with Williams.
“It's a big challenge, but it's a tough one, but I'm going to do everything I can to prepare myself for that match, like mentally be ready to get this win, actually, because, yeah, she's huge and she's a great player, and it's always I think a big challenge to play against these kind of players,” Sabalenka said. “But I'm going to do everything I can to get this win and we're all here for the wins and I'm going to do everything.”
Several stars, including eight-time champion Novak Djokovic and US Open champion Dominic Thiem, say these AO courts are playing faster than they have in recent years.
The surface speed should benefit both women who can playing crushing first-serve, first-strike tennis. Sabalenka has bigger backswings on her drives, which could be problematic, but Williams struggle to time her forehand return at times today and expects to see Sabalenka serve her wide on both sides.
“We’ve never played each other so obviously I’m going to have to play better than today,” Williams said. “And I’m gonna be ready for some big serves especially out wide. “