MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams avenged her heaviest Grand Slam defeatwith a comeback 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Garbine Muguruza on Monday to reach theAustralian Open quarterfinals.
The top-ranked Williams was pushed all the way by No. 24-seeded Muguruza, whomatched her in the heavy-hitting rallies, and who had conceded only four gamesto her in a second-round upset last year at the French Open.
Five-time Australian Open winner Williams next faces Dominika Cibulkova, whoreproduced the kind of tennis that helped her reach the final here last year asshe beat two-time champion Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Defending champion Stan Wawrinka beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (2), 6-4, 4-6,7-6 (8) to move into the men’s quarterfinals, where he’ll play either No. 5 KeiNishikori or No. 9 David Ferrer.
Williams appeared to be labouring at times, and had a serious cough. Shestruggled with her serve in the first set, winning only one of a dozen pointson her second serve as the 21-year-old Spaniard went on the attack. Shecouldn’t convert her six break-point chances, while Muguruza broke her twice.
“She hits the ball really, really big, really, really hard,” Williamssaid. “Someone in the crowd was like ‘C’mon Serena use spin’ and I was like’OK.’ There’s coaches everywhere out here! Thank you.”
Williams hasn’t advanced past the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park since winningher last title here in 2010.
There was a lot to distract her. In the first set, a six planes were doingco-ordinated loops and tricks in the sky over Rod Laver Arena, as part of thenational day celebrations in downtown Melbourne. She had difficulty breathingat times, and had heaving coughing fit into a towel at a changeover.
“I’ve been a little sick the past couple days but I just love ithere,” Williams said, when asked if she’d swallowed a fly. “When Igot down, I was thinking, “What can I do now? Whatever happens, I thought,I’ve won this five times.”
She gradually picked up power in the second set, broke for a 5-3 lead and thenfired three aces and a service winner to level the match at 1-1, screaming asshe pumped her fist.
After missing break points on Muguruza’s serve in the opening game of thethird, Williams saved six break points and needed almost 13 minutes to hold.
Her confidence up, Williams broke for a 3-2 lead and dominated the rest of thematch.
She’ll need every bit of confidence against the 1.61-meter (5-foot-3)Cibulkova, who pounded 44 winners and broke former No. 1-ranked Azarenka’sserve seven times to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the sixth time.
The No. 10-ranked Cibulkova lost the final here last year to the now-retired LiNa, and is back in that kind of form.
“I just walked onto the court and all great memories came to mymind,” she said, reflecting on how her run last year is inspiring her atthe Australian Open, “I thought ‘I’m a great player and I can doit.”‘
“As you can see, I’m not the tallest player on tour, I need to havesomething extra if I want to beat these top players,” she said of herheavy ground strokes. “This is my energy on the court, this is how Iplay.”
Azarenka, unseeded this year after her ranking slipped into the 40s followingan injury-interrupted 2014, won the Australian title in 2012 and ’13 andreached the quarterfinals last year. She opened the tournament with a win over2013 semifinalist Sloane Stephens and then defeated No. 8-seeded CarolineWozniacki — the U.S. Open finalist last year and former No. 1 — and No. 25Barbora Zahlavov Stryova.
Rain showers forced the roofs on all three stadium courts to be closed early,but they opened for later matches when the weather cleared.
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