Serena Williams has advanced to Australian Open quarterfinals despite tumbling to the ground twisting her ankle in the second set of her fourth-round match against seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka on Sunday.
She progressed into the quarter final in the three-set game by pulling a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Sabalenka.
It was the first time 39-year-old Williams played the Belarussian in her career; she matched the Williams’ power from the baseline but couldn’t match the American’s lever of experience.
The American secured the first set with her first break of the match in the 10th game – 6-4.
Early in the second set Williams tumbled to the ground, her heavily taped right ankle twisting, her body contouring, her racket flying.
She put up her hand indicating that she was OK, got up to re-lace her right shoe. It took her time to regain control, high spirited and hard-hitting Sabalenka broke Williams’ serve three times in the second set, the American lost the set 2-6.
In the third and final, Williams saw her 4-1 lead with a break of served erased by the 22-year-old star. The former World No 1 broke her opponent’s serve and won the last two games to maintain her charge for a record-equalling 24th grand Slam single’s title.
Speaking after her victory, Williams said;
I’m happy to get through that one. It wasn’t easy and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. She was teeing off on every shot. Even the games that I lost were super close, one shot here and one shot there, and I just felt like, ‘Serena you’ve got this, you’ve just got to keep going.
She came out uninjured in her fall in the second set. Williams awaits with the winner of Simona Halep or Iga Swiatek for a quarter final clash.
