Serena Williams Puts A Positive Spin On Australian Open Loss

Serena Williams was poised to face Naomi Osaka once again, this time at the Australian Open, and potentially take home her 24th Grand Slam title — but she lost today against 26-year-old Karolina Pliskova.

During the match point, Williams received a foot fault, in which a player is penalized for placing their foot outside of a line. This is not the first time she's received this kind of call: During the 2009 U.S. Open, Williams made headlines for a foot fault, after threatening to shove a tennis ball down the lineswoman's throat. More recently at the 2018 U.S. Open, Williams was issued a couple of controversial code violations and was accused of "having a meltdown." This time, she did nothing, and kept the game moving.

After the foot fault, Williams reached to hit a ball, and rolled over her ankle, accidentally hitting the net in process. "There’s nothing I did wrong on those match points. I didn’t do anything wrong," Williams said in a press conference following the match. "I stayed aggressive and [Pliskova] just literally hit the lines on some of them."

Williams didn't even seek medical assistance for her ankle roll: "I really hate calling the trainer out, to be honest," she told the New York Times. "And at that point I didn’t feel like I needed it or I didn’t feel like it would be a big deal. So I just kept going." She tied her shoelaces tighter in hopes that it would help with the pain, but ultimately Pliskova defeated her.

Lots of people are viewing this as a comeback for Pliskova, who used to be ranked No. 1 in the world. "[Pliskova] literally played her best tennis ever on those shots. I've never seen anything like it," Williams told ESPNW. "Next time I'm up 5-1 against anybody, I need to make sure I play lights out. It's a good learning experience." On Saturday, Pliskova will face 21-year-old Osaka, and one of them will become the new No. 1.

Although Williams' dream of accomplishing another Grand Slam has been deferred, she remains positive. "From day 1, I expect to go out and, quite frankly, to win," Williams told the New York Times. "That hasn’t happened. But I do like my attitude. I like that I don’t want to go out here and say, ‘I expect to lose because I had a year off, I’ve been playing for 10 months, I’m not supposed to win.’ I don’t have that attitude."