New York – A sullen Serena Williams exited the locker room, her racket bag slung across two shoulders, her U.S. Open over after a third consecutive Grand Slam loss to Justine Henin.
While Williams waited for a courtesy car at the player exit, her mother, who also is her coach, put an arm around her neck for a quick, consoling hug. Mom whispered something, and Williams looked straight ahead, apparently still not in any mood to dissect the defeat an hour after it ended.
Finding all the right angles and hanging tough on long rallies, Henin beat Williams 7-6 (3), 6-1 on Tuesday night to reach the U.S. Open semifinals.
Williams’ postmatch news conference began with a query about whether she could explain what went wrong. Her reply: “No. I can’t. I’m sorry. Any more questions?”
“She made a lot of lucky shots,” Williams said a moment later, a white baseball cap pulled low over her eyes, “and I made a lot of errors.”
That high-powered match was followed by the biggest surprise on the men’s side: No. 2 Rafael Nadal’s body broke down and he lost to No. 15 David Ferrer, who reached his first U.S. Open quarterfinal. Ferrer’s 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory means there won’t be a third consecutive major final between Nadal and No. 1 Roger Federer.
The formerly No. 1-ranked Williams is the active leader among women with eight Grand Slam titles, but current No. 1 Henin now has a chance to claim her seventh major.
“I was a bit concerned during the first set because I wasn’t aggressive enough. Then from the tiebreak until the end, I played unbelievable tennis,” Henin said after compiling a 30-17 edge in winners. “My tournament is not over – far from that.”
Her next opponent could be another Williams: Serena’s older sister, Venus, faces No. 3 Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals tonight. Only once has someone beaten Serena and Venus Williams at a single Grand Slam: Martina Hingis did it at the 2001 Australian Open.
Henin beat the younger Williams at the French Open en route to her fourth title in five years there, and again at Wimbledon – both times also in the quarterfinals.
As compelling as the story lines were for Henin-Williams, the match turned out to be far less competitive than the men’s fourth-round action earlier Tuesday.
The No. 3-seeded Novak Djokovic reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time by beating No. 23 Juan Monaco 7-5, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-1 in a match that included the unusual sight of Monaco losing a point because a ball fell out of his shorts.
“I went nuts! I was cursing at me. I was yelling at my pants,” Monaco said.
He was serving while ahead 5-3 in the third-set tiebreaker when the players settled into an extended baseline exchange. As Monaco whipped a shot, an extra yellow ball he had tucked away in case of a fault popped out of his pocket – the second time it happened in the match. He stopped playing, dropped his racket, doubled over and screamed, knowing what was coming.
“Right away I knew I lost that point. It’s very weird,” Monaco said. “That sort of thing cannot happen twice in the same match.”
