NEW YORK – When does the fourth seed losing to a much lower-ranked player not be considered an upset? When the lower-ranked player is Serena Williams
There was talk that Victoria Azarenka’s match against Williams should be a semifinal or final, not a third-round encounter at the US Open. There was no talk of it being an upset, however, when Williams eliminated Azarenka 6-1 7-6 (5) in a battle that would have been a standout one week later.
Playing on the first Saturday – the women’s title match is scheduled for the second Saturday – Williams ripped through the first five games in just 17 minutes and appeared on her way to a rout.
Not so fast. Finally finding the game that has carried her to No. 5 in the world, Azarenka solved the blustery winds on Arthur Ashe Stadium court and the power game of her opponent to finally hold serve in the sixth game. It was a hint of what was to come.
“Seventeen minutes is kind of fast to go 5 love down,” Azarenka said. “But I think she started really strong and didn’t really give me much of a space to be out there.
“I always felt kind of rushed. But after that, I mean, I just had to really start the momentum going, change a little bit the dynamic of the match.”
Williams, seeking her fourth US Open title but first since 2008, needed only 28 minutes to capture the opening set. It took three times that long to play the second set.
Injuries and illnesses kept Williams off the WTA tour for 11 months following her successful Wimbledon run in 2010. But she proved she was back in form at the hard court warm-up events to the year’s final Grand Slam tournament by capturing titles in Stanford and Toronto. While she was seeded according to her WTA ranking – seeded 28th because of the withdrawal of defending champion Kim Clijsters – she is considered probably the favorite to win the US Open yet again.
After the first five games of the match, Azarenka proved to be an equal to Williams in power and precision, finding corners and lines with her heavy ground strokes from the baseline. She was able to solve almost every problem that Williams presented, never backing down or appearing to be overpowered.
“It’s painful,” Azarenka said about the beginning of the match. “To have somebody just going at you like that, it’s a little bit painful. You know, you try to do your best, but somebody’s on fire.
“You just try to manage and change the dynamic of the match and try to get a little bit more on your side, try to be more aggressive. So that’s what I did. It just took a little bit, a while.”
Azarenka matched Williams point for point, game for game as the two provided one of the most exciting matches of the tournament.
Williams was able to reach match point on Azarenka’s serve – three of them actually – but the fourth seed was able to stave them off. Williams then served for the match, reaching her fourth match point. Again it was not to be as Azarenka broke her and then held, forcing a tiebreak.
“I felt on the match points I maybe could have played more aggressive,” Williams said. “But for the most part I think she played well. It’s really annoying when you just blow the shots for no reason. I don’t feel like I blew the shots. I just felt like she played well and I didn’t play aggressive enough.
“She lifted her game. She got really just relaxed, it seems, just hitting great shots.”
Azarenka wasn’t finished. She began the tiebreak with a wicked forehand cross-court for a winner.
Williams took the next three points, grabbing a 3-1 lead, before double-faulting on the sixth point to level at 3. When Azarenka held her next two serves, the second on a beautiful forehand drop volley, she moved ahead 5-4.
She would not gain another point.
Williams ripped a forehand down the line to pull even, then won the next two points on Azarenka errors.
“I think the whole match was a semifinal,” Williams said of the high-quality battle. “But at the end of the day, it was a third round. I’m only in the round of 16 now. So, you know, I got to keep going the best I can.”
There was one upset in women’s singles Saturday. Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 17th seed, knocked off 11th-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-4 6-4. And seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone staved off a match point to escape South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-3.
Other women to claim fourth-round spots were top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, No. 10 Andrea Petkovic, No. 15 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 16 Ana Ivanovic and unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
In the men’s singles, 20th-seeded Janko Tipsarevic advanced when ninth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic retired with a sore right shoulder while trailing 6-4 5-0. Marcel Granollers, seeded 31st, retired with an abdominal muscle pull while trailing veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4 4-3 in an all-Spanish battle.
Winners in other early men’s matches included No. 3 Roger Federer, No. 8 Mardy Fish, No. 22 Alexandr Dolgopolov and Juan Monaco.