Serena Williams crashes out of Australian Open in third round loss to China’s Wang Qiang
Serena Williams’ dream of a record-equalling 24th grand slam title has been put on hold after a shock loss to China’s Wang Qiang in the third round of the Australian Open.
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Serena Williams is out of the Australian Open.
Yes, you’ve read that correctly.
The 23-time grand slam winner’s quest for her elusive record-squalling major is over after a three-set loss to China’s Qiang Wang in the second round, delivering the biggest shock of the tournament so far.
Wang, the tournament’s 27th seed, played the match of her life to dismantle Williams’ game completely and leave her without answers, progressing 6-4 6-7(2) 7-5.
Williams fought tooth and nail to scrape back the second set in a tiebreak but it wasn’t enough as Wang – who needed three match points to secure the win – held tough.
“I think my team always believe I can do it,” Wang said.
The 28-year-old could not have reversed the fortunes any further from the last time the pair met, having fallen to Williams in 45 minutes at the US Open, winning only one game.
“After last time, I did really hard work on court and off the court. It was good work.”
She said she had to “trust myself” after she dropped the second set.
Saturday marks the Chinese New Year but Wang said she would not be celebrating.
“Nope ... take a rest, and just prepare for the next match,” she said.
Williams said she had to accept blame for the defeat, labelling her standard “unprofessional”.
“I just made far too many errors to be a professional athlete today,” Williams said.
Williams – who had trailed 5-3 with Wang serving for the match in the second set - labelled it an uncharacteristic performance.
“I was optimistic I would be able to win (once I won the second set),” she said.
“I thought, ‘OK, now finish this off’.
“I honestly didn’t think I was going to lose that match.”
The 38-year-old said she was still capable of eclipsing Magaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam triumphs.
“It’s not about the tournament. I can’t play like that. I literally can’t do that again. It’s unprofessional,” Williams said.
Court - whose record of 24 grand slams now remains intact until at least June - watched the match on Rod Laver Arena.
Minutes after the result, the 77-year-old said she had considered the match to have been “great”.
But while she remains aware that the slam record is “there to be broken”, she maintains that her overall record of 64 grand slams - 24 singles, 19 doubles, 21 mixed doubles - will likely never be matched.
“It was a great match and I thought (Wang) played well,” Court told the Herald Sun.
“That 24 is always there to be broken - they’ll never break the 64. But I thought it was good tennis. It wasn’t as though Serena played badly, Wang played well.
“But to think that she played her four months ago and lost very easily - she said she had to improve and practice a lot, and she did.”
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