At LAT, "Serena Williams upset by Ana Ivanovic at Australian Open," and NYT, "Serena Williams Diplomatic in Australian Open Defeat to Ana Ivanovic":
MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams sat before a bank of television cameras, below a gaggle of reporters, in both an unfamiliar and impossible position. There were no right answers, only questions. Lots of questions.Forget all the baloney about "diplomacy" and "holding back." Williams got her butt kicked, and hard. Ivanovic was on fire. Outstanding tennis. And no there's no spin that can disguise poor play and poor sportsmanship. Williams had it handed to her.
Most centered on her back and a previously undisclosed injury and how it may have impacted her fourth-round contest of the Australian Open against Ana Ivanovic on Sunday. Answer truthfully, that she nearly withdrew from two matches, and Williams risked a public lambasting for not giving Ivanovic enough credit. The alternative was to lie — and be perceived as holding back.
Williams, as best she could, opted for diplomacy. When pressed, she admitted to back pain, to taking pain medication and to needing a few days off. But she tried (mostly) to steer the conversation back toward Ivanovic, a former No. 1 who all but went missing in recent seasons.
Ivanovic, a Serbian, recorded the upset, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, to advance to the quarterfinals. She put Williams on the defensive, controlled the rallies, ably returned serves, smacked 33 winners and attacked Williams’s backhand as if to say she had found a weakness. Ivanovic deserved much credit, and a welcome back.
And yet, it was difficult to ascertain how much credit Ivanovic deserved.
Difficult even for Williams, who said: “I don’t want to blame anything. I feel like Ana deserves all the credit. It’s not like I gave her the match.”
But, she added, “I almost didn’t play.”
For almost a year now, Williams had won professional tennis matches at an improbable 96 percent clip. Since her exit from last season’s Australian Open, she had played 80 matches, and before Sunday, she had won 77 of them.
Ivanovic had never beaten her, and had made one Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance since her French Open triumph in 2008. Yet Ivanovic said she could sense early she had a chance, at 2-2 in the first set.
For the first week of the tournament, Williams collected broken records.
She set one for most match wins in women’s singles at this tournament (with 61) and another for most women’s singles matches played (70).
All the while, she eyed an even bigger milestone: an 18th Grand Slam singles championship. That would have put Williams in even rarer company, tied with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for second-most all-time, within sight of Steffi Graf and her historic 22 titles in the open era.
To conquer Williams, opponents must return well, for her serve remains her primary weapon. Ivanovic said Williams’s serve did not seem as fast on Sunday, and while Williams garnered 13 aces, she did seem to lack some of her usual zip. Ivanovic dominated, in particular, William’s second serve, winning 59 percent of those points.
Williams cruised through the first three rounds of this Australian Open behind a succession of swift victories. She did not drop a set.
Yet she looked off on Sunday, even as she took the first set. She did not bend well on the backhand side, and she moved sluggishly. After she missed a return early in the second set, she bent over in apparent pain...
And at the video at top, that's Chrissy Evert for ESPN with the Ivanovic interview.
Serena's press conference is here, "Serena Williams Falls to Ana Ivanovic in Australian Open."
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