The most explosive sight in women's tennis — Serena Williams whipping her right arm through a serve or a smash — suddenly looked like a sight gag. Standing a few feet from net, Williams wound up for an overhead she would probably make blindfolded most days, but butchered the shot so badly, the ball hit her side of the court before sputtering into the bottom of the net.
At that point, the Wimbledon champion looked like she was taping a scene for Punk'd rather than playing for a place in the Cincinnati quarterfinals. Weary from a work load of 30 matches (19 singles and 11 doubles matches) since the start of Wimbledon, Serena looked like a shadow of herself for stretches of this match. Here's the scary thing about Serena: Even when she's not nearly at her best, the gap between her and the rest of the pack is so vast right now, she can create a clean scoreline out of a mess of a match.
Relying on her resolve on a hot, breezy day in which her footwork and control were fleeting commodities, Serena won six straight games to close a 6-4, 6-3 victory over qualifier Urszula Radwanska. The straight forward scoreline is a bit misleading: a lethargic-looking Serena battled the heat, fatigue, deficits in both sets and periods of erratic play — she served just 49 percent, did not hit an ace, scattered almost twice as many unforced errors as winners (16 winners to 30 errors) and apart from sprints to run down drop shots she struggled to keep her feet moving — but still showed enough game to rack up her 19th straight win, including her 12th consecutive straight-sets victory.
"I definitely was a little tired out there today," Serena told ESPN2's Mary Joe Fernandez after the match. "I just thought if I could move my feet a little bit then it could make a big difference. I don't think I ever did it, but I tried."
If I told you Serena — the best server in women's tennis history who was broken just once in six Olympic singles wins to capture the gold medal — surrendered serve four times in two sets today, with three of those four breaks coming at love, you might wonder if she was serving left-handed. Spinning her serve in for much of the first set, a flat-footed Serena lost serve at love for the second time to trail 3-4. At that point, Williams looked vulnerable for the taking, but Radwanska just couldn't put enough balls between the lines to capitalize. She committed four consecutive errors to hand back the break. Serena ran off eight of the next 11 points to close the set with her third break.
Opening the second set with a love break, Radwanska, who has a bit more power than older sister Agnieszka but not quite the same delicate feel in the front court, built a 3-0, 30-0 lead, but could not close it. Williams drilled a forehand winner down the line and stared at the spot after breaking for 1-3. Empowered, Serena did not drop another game and will face a much tougher opponent, Angelique Kerber, who knocked Venus Williams out of the Olympics, for a semifinal spot.
"At the end of the day, I'm professional and this is my job," Serena told Fernandez afterward. "Do I want to lose? No. So better toughen up and get through it. I was definitely holding back a little bit; struggling a little bit with aches and pains like every athlete, but overall I'm definitely able to manage it. I'll be totally fine."
—Richard Pagliaro