It's not that she didn't try, because she did. It's not that she wasn't fit enough to play, because she was. But Serena Williams, a five-time champion at the Australian Open, put in a performance Monday that she described as "disastrous" while losing 6-2, 6-3 to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova, ranked No. 56 in the world.
Why? Not quite sure she even knows the answer to that question. Lack of match practice certainly played a part, as did the fact the ankle she injured in Brisbane made moving to the left difficult. But it didn't explain the lethargy that seemed to be draped over Serena's game like a cloak of despair. At times she appeared to move in slow motion, and her second serve would have looked ordinary on those public courts in New York's Central Park.
"I served like a . . . I guess that's not appropriate," she said, pulling back from what she really thought about her serve. "I can't even describe how I served, to be honest. It wasn't good enough. My lefty serve is actually better than that. Maybe I should have started serving lefty."
Serena was actually far more impressive in her press conference than she had been on court. She can be funny, sarcastic, miserable, dismissive or just plain ornery in front of the media, depending on her mood. But this time she was just honest and rational.
Was she fit? "I never blame any injury that I have because she played really well and deserved to win today," was the reply. "I look forward to our next match. I feel I can definitely play so much better. And that's good. Like if I felt I couldn't play better, that would be a problem."
She insisted that she was feeling fine but "obviously not a hundred percent. But it's no excuse or anything."
Serena did admit that, had this not been a Grand Slam, she would not have played. Nevertheless, she is planning to play Fed Cup next month against Belarus in Worcester, Mass., and she expects Venus to join her.
"She's been training, so I expect her to be there," Serena said of her sister. "I'm looking forward to it."
In 2009, Serena arrived here lacking match practice, apparently unfit, and she prepared by spending a lot of time on the beach. And she won. But she is 30 now, and everything is getting a little more difficult. The only good news as the last American at the year's first Grand Slam heads for home is that she seems intent on playing more tennis. "And getting better," she said.
For Makarova, it was a dream come true. The powerful left-hander hit some great winners down the line and, despite missing three match points on Serena's serve with nervous returns, eventually claimed the best victory of her career.
"I played her in Beijing, and I was really afraid of her," she said. "It was really tough to play against her. But this time — I don't know — I felt so comfortable. I really thought I could beat her."
And she did, which was good going for a player who had lost in the first round of the last six tournaments she had played in 2011.
There was an upset in the men's draw, too, when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga — many critics' choice as the leading outsider here — went down 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to Japan's Kei Nishikori. Nishikori has been threatening to produce a big result like this in a major tournament and proceeded to do so.
Nishikori's ability to change pace and hit penetrating backhands has always been his strength, and he perforated the French defenses in the second and third sets when the powerful Tsonga was overwhelmed by his opponent's clinical hitting.
Despite temperatures that hung in the 90s, Nishikori weathered Tsonga's spirited fight in the fourth, broke to lead 3-1 in the fifth and then dug himself out of an 0-40 situation on his own serve. It was Tsonga's last gasp.
"Usually I'm good," said Tsonga. "But today, he was just better than me. When you have a guy in front of you who returns everything, even when you serve at 215 kilometers per hour (133 mph), it puts a lot of pressure."
Nishikori will play last year's finalist, Andy Murray. Murray went off in search of a practice court after playing just 49 minutes against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, who retired at 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 down.
"It was boring; there was nothing happening out there," Murray said. "He had a problem and couldn't run. So there was no point in going on."
Kukushkin became the ninth player to retire in the middle of a match or fail to start in the men's draw this year. The women have had four defaults. The game is becoming too rough on the body.
On a warm evening under the lights, the Rod Laver Arena crowd finally got a women's match to remember as Maria Sharapova screeched and fought her way to a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Sabine Lisicki after an undulating two-hour battle was all about winning the big points. Sharapova did, and her feisty German opponent didn't.
Sharapova hit 43 unforced errors and only 21 winners, but the tall Russian made those winners count as she saved break points and closed out vital games.
Sharapova had raced away to a 3-0 lead in the first set, only to be thrown back on her heels as Lisicki, the 14th seed, grabbed six consecutive games with her powerful groundstrokes. Sharapova, who won this title in 2008, shrugged off the set back and took charge with some pounding winners of her own. The match was played with huge intensity, but, in the end, Sharapova had just too much fire power.
Still No. 1
It could have been embarrassing — the hurting, aging local hero getting slaughtered by the majestic world No. 1, but Lleyton Hewitt was never going to go quietly into the night. Yes, he lost but not before one of Australia's favorite sporting sons had kept Novak Djokovic out on Rod Laver Arena until 1 in the morning and most of the crowd there with him.
Djokovic eventually moved into the quarterfinals by 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, but the manner in which Hewitt fought back from 0-3 in the third set had the crowd on its feet, roaring their heads off. Chasing and scrambling, ignoring pain in his toe, ankle and finally his racket hand, the man who won the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002, just would not give up.
"He made me play that extra ball, and soon I was making errors," Djokovic said. "He makes it very difficult."
Hewitt has made a career out of making it very difficult for opponents, and he wants to go on doing so. Djokovic, who had not dropped a set in his previous matches, was just happy to get out of there unscathed.
