MELBOURNE, Australia – Just as she played at the start of her Australian Open quarterfinals, Serena Williams was suddenly struggling at the start of the second set.
After a mistake against runner-up Simona Halep – who won the last time they faced each other – Williams pointed to the racket strings and made a face, as if to make it clear that it was not really his fault. After another, Williams looked at his box with his palms up and asked, “What’s going on?”
This consternation did not last long. Williams won the last five games and beat Halep 6-3 6-3 on Tuesday to return to the finals at Melbourne Park for the first time since winning the tournament in 2017.
Seeking a 24th Grand Slam title with a record draw, Williams had a final showdown against No. 3 Naomi Osaka, who will have a streak of 19 straight wins in Thursday’s semifinals.
“She’s Serena,” Osaka said. “I feel really intimidated when I see you on the other side of the court.”
This will be his fourth fight in his career – all on hard courts – and Osaka leads 2-1, the most memorable encounter, of course, coming from the 2018 US Open final.
Williams got into an argument with the chairman after his coach was caught trying to transmit a signal – which is not allowed in a Grand Slam game – and ended up being interrupted in a game. Osaka’s victory, which won his first major title, closed with thousands of fans filling the Arthur Ashe Stadium with boos and the two athletes wept during the trophy ceremony.
There were no spectators on Tuesday at the Rod Laver Arena because they were banned from the tournament during a five-day government blockade in response to a local surge in COVID-19 cases (the applause and other crowd noise that viewers are hearing are being added to the broadcast feed and not really happening at the stadium).
This loss to Osaka at Flushing Meadows is part of a 0-4 record for Williams in the Grand Slam finals since his last championship. Another of those defeats came against Halep at Wimbledon in 2019.
In the men’s quarterfinals in Melbourne, Russia’s 114th ranked Aslan Karatsev became the first man in the professional era to reach the semifinals in his first Grand Slam appearance, defeating number 18 Grigor Dimitrov 2-6, 6- 4, 6-1, 6-2.
Karatsev then faces Tuesday’s quarter-final winner between eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic and No. 5 Alexander Zverev.
In the first women’s quarterfinals, Osaka defeated Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei, 71st, 6-2 and 6-2, with the help of loops that reached 196 km / h. She delivered seven aces, won 23 of the 25 points in the first service and ended up with 24 winners in total, with only 14 unforced errors.