Serena fails to serve out match, then loses 6-1 third set to Sakkari

The eighth time was a charm for Maria Sakkari, who after seven unconverted match points had probably never felt more pressure to close out a contest—all despite no fans watching her in the stands, and amidst a truly bizarre third set from her opponent, Serena Williams.

The 38-year-old had all but sealed her place in the Western & Southern Open quarterfinals, but failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set. Then, after she took a 4-1 lead in the subsequent tiebreaker, Williams lost six of the next seven points.

After she lost the set, Williams lost the plot completely.

Serena Williams was in rare form on Tuesday night. (Getty Images)

First, let's acknowledge Sakkari, who pulled off one of the biggest wins of her blossoming career Tuesday night, beating the third-seeded Williams under the lights in the third round of the Premier 5 event, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-1.

Sakkari had beaten Top 10 players eight times before, but none of them had anything close to Serena's credentials. Just points away from defeat in the second set, the 25-year-old Greek buckled down, started extending rallies and drawing more errors from an increasingly frustrated Williams. She boiled over in the third set, not with a racquet smash (though she did toss one into the covered courtside seats) or yells of anger, but with play unlike we've ever seen from the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

After sneaking out the second set, Sakkari held serve and then broke in a marathon game, converting on her eighth break point for a 2-0 lead. In that game, Williams fired a 62 m.p.h. second serve and tried an underspin forehand. She had no command of her first serve or groundstrokes—though she still managed to save seven break points with random unstoppable winners. She looked, at times, like she wanted to give the game away, though Sakkari simply refused to take it.

She eventually did, and stretched her lead to 5-0, when a similar sequence of strange Serena play commenced. When Williams dug out one last hold for 5-1, and reached 0-30 on Sakkari's serve, it surely crossed some viewers' minds that an all-time comeback would be in store. But Serena was far too loose with her shots and, in addition to the mental struggles she was clearly experiencing, appeared to be suffering physically.

"I started cramping, but I shouldn't have been in that situation," said Williams. "I put myself in a bad situation. It's like dating a guy that you know sucks. Like, what are you doing out here? I've got to get rid of this guy. It makes no sense. It's frustrating."

Meanwhile Sakkari, who also beat Coco Gauff at Flushing Meadows, was still playing steady enough. She held one more time to mercifully end it.

WATCH—Serena's post-match press conference

"It was tough, but I literally should have won that match," said Williams. "There was no excuse.

"I mean, yeah, it was hard, but I had so many opportunities to win. I have to figure that one out—like how to start winning those matches again."

Serena finished the match with more than twice as many unforced errors as winners, 58 to 25. The six-time US Open champion now is now 3-2 since returning to the tour, having lost to Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinals of Lexington two weeks ago. All five of her matches have gone three sets.

"It's hard to play the way I've been playing and stay positive," said Williams.

The No. 13-seeded Sakkari, meanwhile, is now through to the last eight at the New York-staged Western & Southern Open, where she’ll face the No. 8 seed, Johanna Konta. Konta leads the head-to-head, 2-1, though they’ve never played on hard courts—Konta leads 2-0 on grass, Sakkari 1-0 on clay.