#23SlamChallenge: Serena Williams remains stuck behind Margaret Court

Let me be the first to say that I had a different hashtag in mind for Serena Williams after she emerged from a loaded section of the Australian Open draw that included her sister Venus and world No. 1 Simona Halep. As well as others were playing—including Karolina Pliskova, as Steve Tignor pointed out—it seemed clear that this was Serena's tournament to lose. Pliskova, Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina, the trio of talented players remaining in Serena's half, had each lost two sets over the course of the tournament's first four rounds. Williams, fresh off a challenging yet convincing win over the world No. 1, appeared to have found the groove needed to propel her into third consecutive Grand Slam final. And, after two runner-up finishes, the third time would surely be a charm: a 24th Grand Slam singles title, tying her with Margaret Court at the Aussie's home Slam.

But the only thing Serena would experience for the third consecutive time was major heartbreak. When Williams, serving, held match point over Pliskova at 5-1, the odds of her victory were likely of those of the New Orleans Saints reaching the Super Bowl, once Los Angeles Rams' cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman slammed into wide receiver Tommylee Lewis with 1:45 to go in a tied NFC Championship Game. The flag would surely come for pass interference, giving the Saints a fresh set of downs to bleed the clock and bleed the life out of the timeout-deprived Rams, before kicking a short-distance field goal to essentially end the game.

The call never came for the Saints.

The call came for Serena—"Foot fault!"—and then, after her second serve, she hurt her ankle.

The call led to a precipitous fall. Incredibly, Serena would not win another point on her serve the rest of the match, as Pliskova snagged the next six games and saved three more match points to, perhaps even more incredibly, defeat Williams from a deficit the size of Australia's Big Things.

And so, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion's challenge remains, and intensifies. Will Roland Garros be the site of a long-awaited conquest, or the stage for further heartbreak? At this point in her career, I suppose that any loss Serena suffers at a Slam is considered painful, but her past three have been especially so, considering the stakes and the circumstances.

"I decided I can't pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it."—Serena Williams

Hashtag, WednesdayWisdom.

"Watching her reach something close to her best over this fortnight, I thought back to the way she played just a few months ago in Indian Wells and Miami, where she lost early and really did look like someone who had spent a year away from the game. When she went out to Naomi Osaka in Miami, Serena looked down at the court and opened her eyes wide, as if to say, “Wow, I’ve got a lot of work to do.” She obviously did the work, and as difficult as it may be to believe, it feels like she’s making another new start at 36. In that sense, she’s still following in her big sister’s footsteps after all these years."—Steve Tignor

"How does Serena close out a match against a great player? She uses her serve. Like a good student again, that’s how Osaka closed out Serena—by not letting her hit the ball. Serving for the championship at 5-3, with 23,000 people baying in the stands and Serena making a goal-line stand, Osaka hit a forehand winner, a service winner, an ace, and, at 40-30, another service winner to end it."—Steve Tignor

"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."—Joel Drucker

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