Serena and Sharapova Make Early Exits

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(January 20, 2014)-It was supposed to be redemption time for Serena Williams at the Australian Open who came into Melbourne a week ago seeking her sixth Australian Open title. Ana Ivanovic had other ideas as she sent Williams on an early vacation after besting her 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday in their fourth round match up. 

After an early exit last year against Sloane Stephens in the quarterfinals, Williams came to Australia this January hoping to capture her first Grand Slam on the famed blue courts since 2010.

Williams had a monster 2013 winning an astounding 78 out of 82 matches played. She captured the French Open as well as the U.S. Open and raked in a record setting twelve million dollars in prize money. After winning easily in Brisbane to start out the season just a few weeks ago, there was no reason to think that Williams wouldn't make a strong run in Melbourne. 

"I definitely didn't feel myself going into the match today," Williams said in her post match interview. "I made a tremendous amount of errors, shots I missed I normally don't miss, that I haven't missed since the '80s. I'm just not used to missing those shots. She made some great shots, and I just made way, way, a lot of unforced errors."

Although Ivanovic is a former number one player that has seen resurgence in her game, she had never even won a set against Williams prior to this match. 

Williams didn't look comfortable throughout the match and certainly didn't resemble the best player in the world that most of her opponents in the past year never came close to beating. She stated that she almost withdrew before the match due to a nagging back injury.

“Maybe I wasn’t the best physically, but that had nothing to do with it. I don’t want to blame anything. I feel like Ana deserves all the credit. I feel she played unbelievable today.“

On hold is also Williams historical run toward 18 Grand Slam titles. That number would put her in rarified air amongst tennis greats such as Martina Navratilova and Chrissy Evert. It had been speculated that if Williams could win in Australia then maybe even Steffi Graf's record of 22 major championships might be in reach.

Maria Sharapova also saw her time in Melbourne come to an early end when she lost in the fourth round to Dominika Cibulkova. The third ranked player had battled shoulder injuries since last summer and was forced to sit out the second half of the 2013 season. Stating that she was pain free coming into Melbourne, Sharapova lost in three sets to the 20th ranked Cibulkova.

Forced to play her matches earlier in the week in the searing heat that blanketed the country may have taken its toll on Sharapova. She also required a medical timeout after losing the second set and after her round she said that she had a hip strain that needed attention from the trainer.

Sharapova struggled with her serve throughout the match and appeared nervous while Cibulkova relished the role of the underdog, which seems to be the theme of this year’s tournament on the women's side.

Second seed Victoria Azarenka was able to hold off Sloane Stephens and advance out of the round of sixteen with a 6-3, 6-2 win. Azarenka has won the last two Australian Open’s and is now the clear favorite with both Sharapova and Williams now eliminated from the tournament. Li Na seeded fourth is the next highest seeded player remaining in the competition. Na lost to Azarenka in the finals last year, but advanced easily out of the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Ekaterina Makarova. 

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