Feb. 17, 2021, 11:38 p.m. ET
After impervious play early in the second set, Osaka gave Williams the lifeline she needed in the eighth game, hitting three double faults to level the score at 4-4.
Neither player seemed to realize that the third double fault on break point had happened initially: Williams’ loud grunt as she lunged for the return drowned out the sound of the recorded out call which plays when the automated technology senses the ball has landed out.
But after the hiccup, Osaka immediately steeled herself, winning the final eight points of the match.
After a bit of hesitation, perhaps due to social distancing guidelines, Williams embraced Osaka as the two met at the net.
Williams gave a more extended farewell to the crowd than she usually does upon defeat, twirling as she waved to the crowd who saluted her as she exited.
In her on-court interview, Osaka admitted she was “really nervous and scared at the beginning” saying of Williams that “it’s always an honor to play her.”
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:26 p.m. ET
A quick note on the crowd: It’s been pretty even so far, but now they really want a third set and it’s getting loud for Serena.
That said, it’s not at 50 percent capacity, even though Tennis Australia was cleared to sell that many tickets. Hard to say whether it is sparse because it is a school day, or perhaps the recent small Covid-19 outbreak and snap lockdown that lifted at midnight scared people away.
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:24 p.m. ET
Osaka kept her nose in front as she races toward the finish line, holding easily for 4-2 with four unreturnable serves in a row to close the game.
Williams responded with a comfortable service hold of her own to reduce the margin to 4-3, but she is running out of time to get the break she needs of Osaka’s serve before the 2019 Australian Open champion has this match wrapped up.
Both players are playing better, statistically, so far in this second set, with Williams hitting eight winners against just six unforced errors, and Osaka hitting seven winners and seven unforced errors.
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:21 p.m. ET
Midway through the second set there are two numbers that you absolutely hate if you are Williams.
The first is her ratio of unforced errors to winners. Forced and unforced is a little subjective, especially because tennis is pretty hard when Naomi Osaka is hitting balls at you, but Serena has 21 unforced errors and just 10 winners, and 13 of those are on her forehand.
The other big problem is Osaka is somehow winning 54 percent of the points on her second serve. She hits her second serve about 78 miles per hour, but Williams isn’t taking advantage
of it when she can.
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:18 p.m. ET
After Osaka emphatically held to extend her second set lead to 3-1, the crowd inside Rod Laver Arena — back in person after being kept out for five days because of a lockdown to stem a coronavirus cluster in Melbourne — grew louder in trying to will Williams back into the match.
Williams badly missed a forehand in the first point of the fifth game, but after a round of encouraging cheers she landed a forehand winner in the next point and screamed in relief.
Williams held to keep herself within reach of Osaka in the second set, with Osaka up 3-2.
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:14 p.m. ET
Williams upped the volume on her intensity as the second set began, grunting loudly and exhorting herself between points as she tried to awaken her best game and remind Osaka of her presence.
Osaka drowned out the noise, however, breaking to open the second set with a one-two punch of backhands including a clean crosscourt winner to end the game.
Osaka, now 3 for 3 on break points, consolidated the break with a hold for 2-0, ending it on a pair of aces at 120 miles per hour.
Williams responded with her own emphatic serving, reaching as high as 122 miles per hour as she held for 1-2 in the second set.
Williams will need to find inroads once more into Osaka’s service games, however, if she is to make this match competitive again.
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:06 p.m. ET
For years, we’ve been used to watching Williams and knowing that if she played well, with the exception of a few opponents, she would not lose. Her very good was just that much better than almost anyone else’s, and her best was unbeatable.
What we are seeing now is that against a good number of players, probably a dozen or so, with Osaka at the top of the list, Serena probably does not win merely on her own game. She needs her opponent to play at least a level down, and Osaka to play maybe two levels down, and right now Osaka isn’t doing that at all.
Serena isn’t playing all that badly here, and Osaka has not been perfect. But Osaka does almost everything better than Williams does, except for that serve of course, and unless she starts falling off, it’s hard to see Williams finding a way to win this.
Feb. 17, 2021, 11:02 p.m. ET
Williams stopped Osaka’s run of five unanswered games by doing what she does best: hitting unreturnable serves.
Williams struck one ace and three other serves which Osaka couldn’t return to narrow the deficit to 5-3. Osaka, however, brushed off the slight setback, holding to close out the first set, 6-3, in 38 minutes.
Osaka won the set despite struggling with her consistency, landing just 36 percent of her first serves. But Williams’s consistency off the ground was nowhere near close enough to trouble Osaka. Williams hit 16 unforced errors against just one winner from her groundstrokes.
The player who won the first set went on to win the match in each of Osaka and Williams’s previous three meetings.
Feb. 17, 2021, 10:52 p.m. ET
After a slow start, facing a break point to go down a double break at 0-2, Osaka has begun to run away with this first set, reeling off five straight games for a 5-2 lead.
Neither player has produced glittering content for the statistics sheet: Osaka has made only 36 percent of her first serves, while Williams has been a little better at 45 percent.
Williams has also been leaking unforced errors, hitting 15 of them already against just three winners.
Despite the momentum swing against her, Williams still only trails in this set by one break, and will serve at 2-5 in hopes of extending this opening frame.
Feb. 17, 2021, 10:52 p.m. ET
Roughly halfway through the first set, we are deep enough in to see the game plan that each player has brought to the court.
Williams is attacking everything, even Osaka’s first serve, which she is trying to pound rather than block back and get into the point. Not a bad idea when you’re going up against a player who sometimes gets out of sorts on her serve, but her full-speed ahead tack is starting to produce some errors.
For her part, Osaka appears to have heard everyone saying how well Serena is moving and defending and decided to say, in essence, oh yeah, let’s see how well you can move. She is making her opponent do the windshield wiper drill every chance she gets, testing Williams’s lateral movement. If she can keep hitting her targets as she has been doing the past three games, watch out.
Feb. 17, 2021, 10:46 p.m. ET
After opening the match shakily, Osaka found her range midway through the fourth game, smacking several powerful forehands that finally imposed her power on the match
.
She converted her first break point of the match when Williams sent a forehand down-the-line long, leveling the score at 2-2.
Osaka again found herself in trouble in her third service game, yet again facing a break point. She saved it, however, and then held when Williams misfired a forehand into the net, putting herself ahead for the first time in the match at 3-2.
Feb. 17, 2021, 10:34 p.m. ET
What I have found most impressive about Osaka during this tournament is that she seems completely unbothered by losing games, listing her serve, losing sets.
More than any other player she seems to remain extremely composed under distress. The losing seems to force her to buckle down and find the next gear. She seems never to give up on herself, which we really saw in the quarters against Muguruza when she was down match point, but also throughout that set when she didn’t go away after falling behind.
She could play terribly in this first set and then be a completely different player in the second and third set. I imagine it drives her team crazy, but their trust in her and her trust in herself is pretty extraordinary.
Feb. 17, 2021, 10:22 p.m. ET
Playing against her idol, it is Osaka who appeared nervous out of the gate to start this semifinal.
Osaka threw in a double fault on the third point of the match, and then sprayed a forehand wide to go down double break point.
Osaka saved the first with a deep down-the-line forehand which forced an error from Williams’s backhand, but Williams converted the second opportunity when Osaka dumped a backhand into the net.
Williams, who has gotten off to slow starts in many recent big matches, will relish winning the opening game.
Feb. 17, 2021, 10:00 p.m. ET
Williams, 39, started her career as one of the greatest closers at the end of Grand Slam events. In her first 28 trips to a Grand Slam semifinal, she won the title 21 times. But dating to a surprise loss to Roberta Vinci in the 2015 U.S. Open semifinals, Williams has struggled to wrap up Slam victories, winning the title only twice in 11 trips to a semifinal.
Since her victory in the 2017 Australian Open, Williams has remained stuck at 23 Grand Slam titles, one of the loftiest plateaus in sports history. Though she already holds the career record for Grand Slam titles in the Open era, which began in 1968, Williams has long had her eye on Margaret Court’s record of 24 major titles.
Feb. 17, 2021, 9:45 p.m. ET
That crowd noise in Melbourne Park is real today after the Australian state of Victoria re-emerges from a five-day lockdown to curb an outbreak of coronavirus cases that is not related to the tournament.
Only 7,477 fans will be allowed in per session, putting the stands at about 50 percent capacity, according to the tournament’s director, Craig Tiley. Fans are required to wear masks while indoors or when they are unable to socially distance, in line with procedures that were in place at the beginning of the tournament.
“Last week we had our first real experience of live sport with fans in the stands and the atmosphere was electric,” Tiley said in an announcement inviting fans back. “The players appreciated the opportunity to compete in front of crowds for the first time in almost a year, and many spoke about how emotional it was to connect with fans again.”
Australia went into a snap lockdown last Friday after Victoria’s case count rose to 13. The heightened restrictions, which prevented residents who were not considered essential workers to stay home with minimal exceptions, ended at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Premier Daniel Andrews of Victoria announced, after no new cases were announced out of more than 39,000 tests.
There were still 25 active cases of the virus in the last 24 hours, one of which was attributed to an individual quarantining from out of the country, according to Victoria’s health department.
The lockdown did not affect the players or many others associated with the Australian Open because they were considered essential workers by the government.
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