It’s one of those matches that fans will remember for a very long time. One of the most incredible collapses by Serena Williams, most certainly impaired by an ankle incident occurred while she was just a few points from the finish line, who squandered a 5-1 lead in the deciding set to lose a match she had recovered after having been down by a set and a break. Karolina Pliskova played an excellent first set, was almost paralyzed by tension when she served up 3-2 in the second set and almost gave the match away in the third. “My mind was in the locker room, but I was still here,” she said immediately after her victory, as while Serena Williams was slowly crumbling in front of her, she managed to keep her cool in a sunny and windy day in Melbourne to pull off this amazing comeback.
The beginning was very cautious for both player: it was a hot day and they both respected each other. Serena’s start was particularly slow, her first serve was at least 20 km/h slower than usual and Pliskova took advantage of it with an early break and a 3-1 lead. The American champion “woke up” at 1-3 0-40 when facing three chances to go down a double break when she put the foot down on her serve and managed not to let her opponent run away in the first set. But it still wasn’t the best Williams, unable to limit her unforced errors and incapable of making a dent in Pliskova’s serve. After 40 minutes of play, the Czech player won the first set 6-4 clinching her fist towards her coach Conchita Martinez in the stands.
Williams continued to struggle on her serve, especially on the “sunny” side of Rod Laver Arena, she had to face break points on the first game of the second set while still unable get any chances to break Pliskova. Another tentative service game for Serena at 2-2 gave Karolina the crucial advantage of a break, but at that point, Pliskova did not have the instinct to kill the match an 8-points to 1 streak got the American back in the game. From that moment, Serena Williams won nine of the following eleven games and looked on her way to her 50th Grand Slam semifinal, when the unexpected happened: what looked like a minor wiggle at William’s right ankle turned out to be the key of the match. One game at a time Pliskova came back from 1-5 down in the third set, brushed off four match points and managed to pull off one of the most surprising comebacks of her career to reach her first Australian Open semifinal.
Karolina Pliskova on Thursday will face Naomi Osaka who defeated Svitolina in two sets.
