Down 1-5 in third set, Pliskova comes back to stun Serena in Melbourne

MELBOURNE—The best serve in the history of women’s tennis, up two breaks at 5-1, 40-30 in the third. A thunderbolt of a service return that generated match points at 4-5, 15-40 and another at ad out in the same game. The adversary, her window of opportunity snapped shut, displaying the competitive intensity of a mortician on a Sunday morning.

Those were three attributes Serena Williams had in her favor in the third set of her quarterfinal versus Karolina Pliskova. Add in Williams’ experience, history, popularity and, most of all, unsurpassed ability to raise her game when it matters most. Even people who can’t tell the difference between a volley and a valley know how well Serena Williams performs under pressure.

In the end, though, Pliskova rose from the dead. In two hours and 10 minutes, she staged one of the most remarkable comebacks in late-stage Grand Slam history to beat Williams 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

“I think she just played lights out on match point,” said Williams.

Said Pliskova, “I think that was the biggest victory for me today.”

On the first, Williams struck a powerful serve into Pliskova’s backhand, but was called for a foot-fault. Given both her ample lead and the infamous foot-fault that was called on Williams in the semifinals of the 2009 US Open, there was no way she was going to raise a peep of protest. But then the plot twisted; in this case, literally. On the same point, as she attempted to reverse direction, Williams awkwardly turned on her left ankle, netted a forehand pass—and never again won a point on her serve.

As for Pliskova, the listless qualities the Czech had shown through the last half of the second set might well have been cloaked tranquility. Serving at 4-5, 15-40, from the middle of the court, she laced a backhand inside-out winner as serenely as if hitting against a ball machine. At 30-40, match point number three was erased when Pliskova took control of a seven-ball rally, angling a forehand crosscourt sharply enough to elicit a Williams forehand into the net. She took the fourth with yet another crisp combo of a deep serve down the T and another crosscourt forehand that landed just inside the baseline and close enough to the sideline to trigger an error from Williams.

Pliskova went on to win 10 straight points—ahead now 6-5, 40-love. In the pantheon of those who rally from the brink, Pliskova’s record was little more than a tidy LinkedIn profile (though two years ago here, she’d rallied from 5-2 down in the third to beat Jelena Ostapenko).

Williams’ comeback record is epic, arguably the most impressive in tennis history.

“I know she’s the greatest ever,” said Pliskova, “but I don’t want to put her somewhere where I would not have a chance to beat her…I knew I’m going to have my chances. But I had to play well.”

On Pliskova’s first match point, Williams took command of an eight-ball rally well enough to generate a backhand error. At 40-15, Williams again played fearlessly—a heavy and deep inside-out backhand return, followed by a down-the-line backhand winner. On the third, Pliskova lined an excellent serve down the T and soon the two were in a fine rally. As always at these high-stakes moments, Williams rallied with conviction, elicited an attackable forehand—and drove it into the net.

“I got my chance,” said Pliskova. “I just went for it.”

It had been a strange match. Through the first set and half of the second,Pliskova didn’t so much conquer Williams as embalm her, proficiently but also silently. So often in those early stages, Williams moved listlessly.

The Czech’s serve was critical, a dart of a delivery that often helped her gain control of the real estate of the court (in a way quite different from others who attempt to topple Williams, such as Simona Halep). In the first set, Pliskova won 21 of her 27 service points.

But as she has so often, Williams raised her game, not just slightly, but magnificently. With Pliskova serving in the second set, leading 6-4, 3-2, Williams won eight of the next nine points. And though Pliskova later held three points to level the set at 5-all, Williams was unyielding and soon sprinted her way through the first six games of the third. All seemed on course for a semifinal match versus Naomi Osaka, a chance for vindicating last year’s US Open final result. It didn’t happen.

“I don’t think it had anything to do with my ankle,” said Williams. “I think she was just nailing and hitting shots.”

Over the last two years, we have witnessed such moments as the redemptive Grand Slam wins of Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki, the youthful ascent of Ostapenko, Osaka, and Sloane Stephens; the late-stage bloom of Angelique Kerber.

Might this year’s Australian Open be Pliskova’s time? She first broke into the Top 10 in summer of 2015 and held the No. 1 ranking for eight weeks two years later. But there has also been a blank quality to her arc too, of no single eloquent result staking her claim as one of the greats of contemporary tennis.

Instead, Pliskova has merely labored, as vivid an example as you’ll get of someone who lets her racquet do the talking.

“You cannot know if I’m scared or not,” Pliskova joked to the press this afternoon. Why should we? She likes it that way.

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