World No.1 Serena Williams revealed she almost pulled out of the Australian Open with a back injury before suffering a shock fourth-round loss to Ana Ivanovic on Sunday.
Williams was reluctant to discredit her opponent – a three-time grand slam finalist and former French Open champion and world No.1 – but admitted the injury contributed to her 4-6 6-3 6-3 loss.
The American initially deflected questions about the injury but came clean after being told her coach had already let the cat out of the bag.
“I guess the secret is out, but I obviously wasn’t hitting the way I normally would hit and wasn’t moving the way I normally would move and making a lot of errors that I normally would not make and I haven’t made in a couple of years,” Williams said.
“But it’s okay. I feel like I know for a fact I can play so much better than what I did today, so with that, knowing that, I’m not disappointed or anything.
“I just know that I can play 10 times better than what I did today.
“I made a tremendous amount of errors, shots I missed I normally don’t miss – I haven’t missed since the ’80s.”
The 17-times major champion was hoping to catch tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on the all-time grand slam leaderboard with a sixth Open title at Melbourne Park.
“I almost pulled out. I’m such a competitor. I mean, I probably should have,” Williams said.
“But I don’t want to blame anything. I feel like Ana deserves all the credit.
“Maybe I wasn’t the best physically, but that had nothing to do with it.
“I think Ana just played a really good match. She did what it takes to win.
“I feel she played unbelievable today. She went for her shots. It’s not like I gave her the match.
“I tried to fight the best I could today. But, yeah, I almost didn’t play.
“But, hey, I did, and at least I feel good that I tried the best that I could.”
She’s turning 33 in September but after winning 78 of 83 matches in a dominant 2013 season, Williams is confident of adding to her record Australian Open collection.
“I feel like I’ll win it again,” she said.
“Obviously not this year, but maybe next year.”
