NEW YORK—Serena Williams came out looking for revenge today, but it took her a little longer than expected for her to get it. She had lost to her opponent, Ekaterina Makarova, at the Australian Open earlier this year, and most observers expected her to make especially short work of the Russian at Flushing Meadows.
And she did, eventually, beating Makarova 6-4, 6-0 in 81 minutes to advance to the fourth round. Despite that, Makarova managed to show that her Aussie Open upset wasn’t a total fluke, that it wasn’t all about the bad ankle that Serena was playing on at the time. The 24-year-old won points with her heavy lefty serve, and she was able to deal with Williams’s pace better than most players ranked outside the Top 20 do. Williams came out with guns blazing to start, but Makarova, with her short-hop returns and ground-stroke angles, forced her to back off after a couple of games and play more patiently.
Which, to her credit, Serena immediately did. She went about protecting her serve, worked the rallies, and waited for her moment. It finally came at 5-4, when she hit a backhand winner and a swing volley winner to break for the set, and, essentially, the match. Serena won the next six games as well.
She might have been off to the races a lot sooner if she hadn’t curiously pulled a forehand wide at break point in the second game—Serena gave that shot a long, puzzled look herself. Things also might have been different if a forehand of hers hadn’t clipped the tape and flown long at break point in the third game. But the fact that Williams was challenged and at least briefly forced to do something other than blast winners at will might not be a bad thing. This could have become a nervy match, but she didn’t let it. In that, it was a sort of mini-version of the Wimbledon final, where Serena went to a less-risky plan B to beat a troublesome opponent. Both times she succeeded.
Williams finished with eight aces, 31 winners, and 16 errors. You might say that a first-serve percentage of 53 is a stat line she’d want to improve, but even with that number, Serena didn’t face a single break point. In other words, analysis over, revenge completed, time to move on. Next up: the winner of Kirilenko and Hlavackova.
