What’s better than being world No1? Having a big sister like Venus Williams, that’s for sure. Serena Williams yesterday relied on her sister in more ways than one to rally back from a set down and beat the young and fiery Elina Svitolina and set-up an intriguing fourth round with Garbine Muguruza.
Serena has been far from her best so far at the Australian Open but she has found ways to step up her game just enough to reach the last 16. She suffered a slow start against Svitolina, a 20-year-old she had faced three years ago in the Fed Cup and had noticed “a fire in her eyes”.
That fire was blazing yesterday at the Rod Laver Arena as Svitolina went up a double-break in the opening set against the No1 seed. Serena got one break back but still dropped the first set 6-4 to Svitolina, who was playing a major as a seeded player for the first time.
But a new and improved Serena showed up for the second set and she restored the tennis order by storming to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory Serena cited advice from Venus as the reason behind her successful turnaround.
“When in doubt just start running as fast as you can, that’s what Venus always told me, that helped,” said the five-time Australian Open champion.
Venus, who is diagnosed with an auto-immune energy-sapping disease called Sjogren’s Syndrome, was launching her own comeback when Serena was stepping on court yesterday.
The older Williams sister was stuck in a three-set battle with Camila Giorgi, after dropping the first set to the Italian. Serena said in her on-court interview that when she saw Venus was up 4-1 in the third set as she walked on for her own match, she drew inspiration from her sibling’s resolve.
“I thought ‘wow, she’s been through so much with her illness, with everything that she’s had to do. If she can do it, I’m perfectly healthy, I’m fine. I should be able to do it, too’.
It just got me so motivated, really helped me push through those next two sets at a rapid rate,” explained Serena. Venus ended up overcoming Giorgi 4-6, 7-6, 6-1 to reach the last 16 at a grand slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2011, after which she found out about her illness.
In the fourth round, Venus will take on No6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who has been flying all week, her latest victim, Varvara Lepchenko, receiving a 6-0, 7-5 beating.
Serena will face Muguruza, the Spanish up-and-comer who ousted the world No1 from the French Open second round last year and has been improving consistently ever since.
The American 18-time major champion refers to that defeat as her “best loss of the year”, saying she learnt a lot from it moving forward. “That day she played well. She didn’t miss a shot. She didn’t miss a forehand. She miraculously got every ball back. As a top player you have to be ready for that,” recalled Serena of that match in Paris.
