Serena Williams has lost at the Australian Open for the first time since 2008, struggling with her serve and hitting too many unforced errors in a shocking 6-2, 6-3 fourth round defeat to Ekaterina Makarova.
Williams was surprised by the power of the groundstrokes coming back at her from the Russian left-hander, who at No. 56 was the lowest-ranked woman to make the fourth round of the season’s first major.
The dominant force at Melbourne Park this century, Williams had lost only two matches at the Australian Open since winning the first of her five titles here in 2003.
But she had seven double-faults including four in the fifth game of the second set and 37 unforced errors to give Makarova a spot in the quarterfinals at a major for the first time.
“I don’t know what to say. Amazing feeling and first time in quarterfinals,” the 23-year-old Makarova said. Williams is “an unbelievable player. It’s really tough to play against her so I’m really happy I finished it in my way.”
Williams sprained her left ankle in a warm-up tournament at Brisbane two weeks ago, but didn’t show any signs of being restricted on Monday.
She was bothered by a bug that landed on her left shoulder when she dropped serve for the first time in the match, and became increasingly exasperated as her misses piled up including one overhead that she sent way too long and another that she hit meekly back for Makarova to pass her.
Williams won the first two games in the second set but then Makarova went on a roll, winning the next four games including the double-fault strewn game at 2-2 when Williams screamed after one and asked herself out loud after another- “How many double-faults do you want to make?”
“Yeah, I served like .... it’s inappropriate. I don’t know,” Serena said. “It was just disastrous really. Maybe I should have started serving lefty.”
The Russian got tighter toward the end but kept her nerve to hold in a key game. Then, with Williams serving to stay in the match, she needed four match points before Williams sent a backhand wide.
