Renewed Williams finds winning form
MELBOURNE, Australia – Serena Williams knew it had been quite some time since her last victory over a Top 10 player. When told it had been two years, the American star shook her head and laughed in disbelief.
“Has it been that long? That’s a terrible stat,” Williams said today after beating fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the third round of the Australian Open.
It was Williams’ first win over a Top 10 player since she won the 2005 event for her seventh and final major singles title, beating Amelie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals, fending off match points against Maria Sharapova in the semis and overcoming Lindsay Davenport in the final.
Williams will face No. 11 Jelena Jankovic – a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Victoria Azarenka – on Sunday.
Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo beat the Czech Republic’s Eva Birnerova 6-3, 6-1. The second-seeded Mauresmo will play another Czech, Lucie Safarova, in the fourth round. Safarova advanced when Anastasiya Yakimova retired with a back injury after losing the first set 6-3.
No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced, beating fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-4.
Limited to four tournaments last year because of a chronic knee injury, Williams dropped out of the top 100 for the first time since 1997 before climbing back to 95th in the year-end rankings. In the first set she made 18 unforced errors, many just missing the lines, and dropped serve twice.
“I felt like I was doing everything right in the first set, and she just killed me,” Williams said. “I was trying to figure out what to do.”
She did, dictating early in the second and having breakpoint at 3-0, before Petrova rallied to win the next four games and then had a chance to serve for the match in the 10th.
Petrova got tight and Williams stuck to a formula that has served her well in the past.
“I’ve always gone for my shots in any type of pressure situation, and I am going to keep it up,” Williams said. “It doesn’t matter – I think the more pressure I get, the tougher I get.”
Williams cut down her mistakes and started nailing the ground strokes that until then she had been narrowly missing.
“I was down 3-5 and on the verge of being out of the tournament, and I obviously didn’t want that to happen,” she said. “It was time to either move or lose, and I definitely didn’t want to lose.”
Williams broke to tie it at 5 and then held serve.
Petrova admonished herself while eating an energy bar during the changeover. That didn’t help, and Williams, with the capacity crowd of 15,000 behind her, won the second set when Petrova double-faulted.
Williams broke Petrova again twice in the third and ended it in 2 hours, 5 minutes when Petrova netted a service return.
“She came up with some unbelievable returns,” said Petrova, 1-6 against Williams. “She just went for the balls and she produced an unbelievable backhand winner up the line from far behind the court. That’s what gave her confidence for the third set.”
On the men’s side, 14th-seeded Novak Djokovic beat Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. Djokovic will face defending champion Roger Federer, who defeated Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets. Federer is on a 33-match winning streak overall and has lost only once in his last 23 matches at Melbourne Park.
“If I go with the white flag on the court, what I’m doing here?” the 19-year-old Djokovic. “I’m aware that Roger is the best in the world.”
Rain forced a delay in the start of some matches on the outside courts, and the showers quickly returned, forcing a suspension for nearly two hours.
Marat Safin, who broke Federer’s sequence here the 2005 semifinals, faced sixth-seeded Andy Roddick in the night match.