Stephens shocks ailing Serena, Federer on track
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, January 24, 2013
Serena Williams went down smashing rackets and screaming as she bowed out of the Australian Open yesterday, hampered by a back injury and beaten in three sets by fellow American Sloane Stephens in the last eight.
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Serena Williams returns a ball to Sloane Stephens at Australian Open quarterfinals on Jan.23, 2013. |
The injury robbed Williams of her serve - the most effective weapon in women's tennis - but teenager Stephens will take much credit for holding her nerve to finish off the ailing 15-time grand-slam champion.
Roger Federer's bid to emulate Williams as a five-time Melbourne Park champion survived a five-set test at the hands of an inspired Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the Swiss marched on to a last-four meeting with Andy Murray, who crushed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
Stephens will have 24 hours to prepare for her first grand-slam semifinal against defending champion and world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, who overcame Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1.
"Oh my goodness," said Stephens, teary-eyed and lost for words after beating a player whose picture once adorned her bedroom wall. "This is so crazy, but oh my goodness, I think I'll put a poster of myself up now."
The 31-year-old Williams, odds-on favorite to claim a third successive grand slam crown, pulled up to avoid hitting the net after a backhand drop shot early in the second set and shrieked as she felt the full force of a back spasm. After lengthy treatment, Williams continued but the power of her serve and groundstrokes were considerably diminished and 19-year-old Stephens took advantage in impressive fashion to run out a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 winner in Rod Laver Arena.
Williams, who smashed her racket to pieces in frustration in the third set, tried graciously to honor the locker-room code that you do not diminish an opponent's achievement but was unable to wholly play down the significance of the injury.
"I even screamed on the court," she said. "I was like, 'ahh'. I totally locked up after that. It was ... a little painful."
Federer, also 31, started his match against Tsonga by breaking the Frenchman but it was just one of nine breaks in an absorbing 3-1/2-hour contest that see-sawed back and forth all evening.
Tsonga, a finalist here in 2008, was tactically smart, sent down 20 booming aces and produced some brilliant forehands that overpowered even Federer's defenses at times.
The 17-time grand-slam champion rode his luck on occasions, however, to finally overcome the seventh seed's resistance with a smash on his fifth match point to clinch a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3 win.
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