Serena Williams has been knocked out of the Australian Open in the quarter finals match played at Melbourne Park.
The 16th seed was beaten 4-6 6-4 5-7 by Karolina Pliskova after Williams injured an ankle when 5-1 up in the deciding set.
Pliskova saved four match points against the seven-time champ and will now play Japanese fourth seed and reigning US Open champion Naomi Osaka in Thursday’s semifinals.
Williams remains stranded one grand slam shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record 24 major singles titles.
Williams appeared to jar her ankle on her first match point.
With the American seemingly troubled by the injury, Pliskova seized the opportunity to fight her way back into the match and proceeded to win the next six games to seal an unlikely victory.
“I was almost in the locker-room but now I am standing here as a winner – it is a very good feeling,” Pliskova said after the two-hour, 10-minute battle on Rod Laver Arena.
“She was playing very well, especially at the end of the second set. She went for her shots and she was aggressive and I played too passive.
“I said, ‘Let’s try this game 5-2, maybe I will have a couple of chances’. She got a little bit shaky in the end so I took my chances and I won.”
Pliskova is unbeaten this year after winning the season-opening Brisbane International.
The loss once again dashes Williams’ hopes in Melbourne of matching Court’s long-standing record after the 37-year-old also fell just short at Wimbledon and the US Open as a beaten finalist.
The 37-year-old refused to blame either an untimely foot-fault called on her first match point, nor an ankle injury suffered midway through the third set, for her crushing loss.
“My ankle seems to be fine. I usually don’t know until the next day, so I think she just played lights out on match point, literally, hitting lines. Just went crazy,” Williams said.
“I can’t say that I choked on those match points. She literally played her best tennis ever on those shots.”
Pliskova’s previous best grand slam result was a loss in the 2016 US Open final to Angelique Kerber, while she’s never previously gone further than the quarter- finals at Melbourne Park.
(Stuff)
