Crushed Serena says Grand Slam record bid will go on

MELBOURNE (Reuters): “I can’t play like that,” said a downcast Serena Williams, lamenting her third round upset by rank outsider Wang Qiang at the Australian Open but declared her bid for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title would go on.

The seven-times Melbourne champion stumbled to her earliest exit at the tournament in 14 years with an error-strewn 6-4 6-7(2) 7-5 loss to 27th seed Wang that raised queries about her hopes of chasing down Margaret Court’s record major titles. 

Serena Williams of the US reacts during the match against China's Qiang Wang 24 January – Reuters

The stunning defeat at Rod Laver Arena came less than four months after Williams trounced Wang 6-1 6-0 in the US Open quarter-finals.

“Honestly, if we were just honest with ourselves, it’s all on my shoulders. I lost that match. So it is what it is,” Williams told reporters after racking up 56 unforced errors next to 43 winners.  “Like I said, it’s not about the tournament, it’s just like I can’t play like that. Like, I literally can’t do that again. That’s unprofessional. It’s not cool.”

In the early stages of pregnancy, Williams grabbed her seventh title at Melbourne Park in 2017 but has fallen agonisingly short of another major triumph since returning to the tour in 2018 as a mother.

She has reached four Grand Slam finals but failed to win any, with her recent US Open defeat to Canadian talent Bianca Andreescu playing out in front of a partisan crowd in New York.

The window for another Grand Slam trophy may have grown smaller on Friday but 38-year-old Williams said she felt like she was “on the way up” and dismissed the idea that she might have made her last appearance in Melbourne.

“I’m not even thinking about anything, about not being here,” she said. “I’m way too old to play like this at this stage of my career. It’s such a big tournament. It’s no excuse, to be honest,” she added, still churning over her performance. I’m definitely going to be training tomorrow. That’s first and foremost, to make sure I don’t do this again.”