Tennis News

Williams says serve disappointed in Melbourne upset loss

Jan 23, 2012, 6:05 GMT

Melbourne - Ekaterina Makarova spelled the end of the Serena Williams run at the Australian Open, her 6-2, 6-3 win sending the five-time champion American out in the fourth round on Monday.

With 37 unforced errors - and four double-faults in the same game - the 30-year-old Williams had plenty of places to pin the blame on her performance. Bit it was on serve where she felt the worst.

'I served like a ... I guess that's not appropriate. I can't even describe how I served, to be honest. It wasn't good, though. My lefty serve is actually better than that. Maybe I should have started serving lefty.'

Williams, who suffered a rolled ankle two weeks before the event, said she had not been at 100 per cent during the major but refused to go into more detail.

She did give 23-year-old Russian Makarova full marks for the victory, achieved on a fourth match point from a concluding Williams unforced error. 'She played really well, she went for broke on a lot of her shots.

'I made 37 errors, that kind of tells the story of the match. It was definitely hot out there. I guess I just didn't move the way I wanted to, I tried.'

The veteran with 13 Grand Slam trophies said that she would not beat herself up due to the circumstances of the match.

'I always think about things that I can do better next time around. Usually I play myself into the tournament. But I usually don't have a huge problem with an injury, so this is a completely different situation.'

Asked if she would have competed had it not been a major, Williams replied: 'No, no way. I probably shouldn't have played.'

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