Federer and Serena advance after Venus falls
Venus Williams
MELBOURNE — Serena Williams dug herself out of a hole while big sister Venus put herself in one during an eventful Australian Open women’s quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Defending champion Serena was teetering on the brink of an early departure when she trailed Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka 4-6, 0-4.
The world number one was struggling to match the power and aggression of the 20-year-old from Minsk, who also had Serena on the ropes in the fourth round in 2009 before retiring with illness.
But Serena showed all her renowned fighting qualities as she came out swinging, winning 12 of the next 16 games to somehow overhaul Azarenka 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
She next plays Chinese 16th seed Li Na, who performed a similar escape act against Venus in the first match on Rod Laver Arena.
The imposing Venus blitzed her way through the first set and led 5-3 in the second before imploding under an avalanche of unforced errors, virtually handing the match to the gritty Li 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5.
Serena said she surprised even herself with her fightback.
“I didn’t expect to win when I was down 0-4 — I was like ‘well at least I am still in the doubles’,” she said.
“But I never really count myself out.”
With her left knee and right thigh heavily bandaged, Williams was run all around the court by Azarenka.
At 0-4 in the second set, and having not won a point on the Azarenka serve in the set until then, Williams cut a dejected figure and seemed only moments from elimination.
However, she started to swing freely and all the sudden her game returned to its dominant best.
“I knew if I could just do a little better and make a little less errors — I made a lot — I knew I could be better,” Serena said.
Azarenka was still playing well, but had no answer to the power surge, with Williams hitting 57 winners to her 22.
Meanwhile Li, who joined countrywoman Zheng Jie in the semi-finals, was ecstatic after her two hours, 45 minute win.
“It’s the best day of my whole life,” she said.
“It’s good for both players and it’s good for Chinese tennis.”
Li and Venus made 110 unforced errors between them in a poor quality match that will be best remembered for the drama of the fluctuating third set, which featured nine breaks of serve.
Li started nervously and seemed overwhelmed by the occasion as she wilted badly in the first set against the power of the American.
She lost the first set in just 30 minutes and was in real trouble when Venus was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second.
But Li began to swing freely and Venus tightened up, losing her serve, then the set in a tiebreak.
“Actually I was nervous in the first set, I mean, Venus played aggressively in the first set,” Li said.
“She didn’t miss a lot of balls. I was feeling more pressure in the first set. Then in the second set I was feeling a little bit better, but still was like 5-3 down. Then I just tried to get more balls back.”
Li’s tiebreak win signalled the start of a see-sawing final set in which both players struggled to hold serve — at one stage there were six consecutive breaks.
Li finally held and came out to serve for the match, only to be broken, but Williams dropped her serve straight away, giving Li another chance.
This time she made no mistake as another unforced error from the American gave her the match
Li Na
MELBOURNE – Roger Federer and Serena Williams needed all their fighting qualities to remain in the Australian Open Wednesday after Li Na stunned Venus Williams to become just the second Chinese to reach the semi-finals of a grand slam.
Federer reeled off 13 games in a row to dig himself out of trouble and beat Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 2-6 6-3 6-0 7-5 in a wildly fluctuating match.
Serena was also staring down the barrel in her quarter-final against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus before she recovered to beat Victoria Azarenka 4-6 7-6 6-2.
Her elder sibling might have joined her but threw away a match-winning lead in her 2-6 7-6 7-5 loss to Li, one of two Chinese women through to the last four at Melbourne Park.
Federer made it through to his 23rd consecutive grand slam semi but only after a titantic struggle with Davydenko, who won the opening set then got an early service break in the second.
The world number one was struggling just to stay with Davydenko as the sun started setting and shadows started creeping on to the Rod Laver Arena but seized his opportunity when the Russian suddenly went off the boil.
“I’ve played him many times and I know he goes through phases, you just try to stay positive,” the Swiss said.
“I wasn’t playing terribly, just struggling with the sun coming across. It’s like a rain delay, you just wait.”
Federer’s next opponent will be either Novak Djokovic or Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga, who met in the 2008 Australian Open final, the only grand slam since the 2005 French Open where Federer has not been in the final.
SERENA COMEBACK
Serena showed why she remains the toughest woman in the world to beat, battling back from the brink of defeat to remain on course to defend the title she won for a fourth time last year.
The American lost the opening set to Azarenka then went behind 4-0 in the second as she started to doubt herself before she rediscovered her self-belief and found a way to win.
“I’m surprised. I didn’t expect to win when I was down in the second set,” she said.
“I thought if I lost the singles and the doubles, I could catch a flight Friday. It’s not what a champion is supposed to think but I did.”
Venus was two points away from wrapping up a straight-sets win when she stumbled on her serve and allowed Li back into the contest.
“In tennis you have to close it out. It’s not like there’s a clock ticking and then suddenly it’s over,” Venus said.
“You just have to close it out. I didn’t do that today.”
The once unimaginable prospect of an all-Chinese final is suddenly looming as a real possibility after Li followed Zheng Jie into the semis.
Zheng beat Maria Kirilenko 24 hours earlier and plays Justine Henin in Thursday’s semis while Li faces the daunting prospect of playing Serena.
Millions of people in China have been following their matches on television and Li said she was adopting a philosophical approach to her match against Serena.
“In China we say if you have a tough time and then you return back, maybe you have good luck for after,” she said. “So I still believe that.”
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