The 6-0 scoreline in the first set of the Serena Williams/Agnieszka Radwanska semi-final is not an accurate reflection of the play. It was much more one-sided than that.
It lasted 20 minutes, as long as the half-time break at the footy, as long as it takes to cook a bowl of rice. Radwanska won just seven points. “You try everything and you think you’re playing good, but it’s still not going your way at all,” reflected Radwanska. The stats sheet bore her out. It debited her with just three errors. Everything else was a whaling Williams winner.
“Everything was too good, from her serve (onwards),” said Radwanska. “I couldn’t do much. Nothing at all, actually. I was just there kind of watching her play.” Also too true. An enduring image is of Radwanska standing stock still, legs apart, as if turned to stone, as another Williams winner whistled by. It wasn’t resignation, just helplessness.
Rod Laver arena fell silent, save for the incongruously cheerful chirping of birds under the closed roof, and the statutory dill who cried out: “C’mon Serena.” It was like barracking at a funeral.
No first round fodder from qualifying, Radwanska, a reknowned toughie, is the fourth-ranked player in the world. More correctly, she is No 3 in the second division. Williams is alone in division one. Radwanska acknowledged it. “If she’s playing her best tennis, I don’t think anyone can really play at her level,” she said. “When you serve 190 km/h wide … I don’t know who’s going to take that. Definitely not me.”
Radwanska said this might have been the best set anyone had played against her. But it would take some checking. In their nine matches, Radwanska has taken just one set off Williams. In this tournament, no-one has won a set against her. Williams becomes a little bashful when asked to dwell on her tyranny, but she did offer this: “I’ve always said when I’m playing at my best, it’s difficult to beat me.”
Williams was supreme last year, but took points off herself for starting slowly too often and having always to fight back. She was sick of it. This day, she hit Radwanska the way the air does when you open the front door on a 40-degree north wind day. There was little finesse, no slices, nothing else off-pace. Everything was hard and deep, and came back shallow and slow, when it came back at all.
