A nightmare flashback of her only other visit to Auckland’s ASB Classic has helped inspire US great Serena Williams to a taxing second-round win.
Williams overcome a shonky start to beat compatriot Christina McHale 5-7 6-2 6-3, forcing the top seed to spend nearly two hours on court in warm, blustery conditions.
It was, she said, just what the doctor ordered after a long off-season and ahead of an Australian Open campaign in which she expects to be tested physically and mentally.
“It was good. I got myself in a hole and I was able to get out of it. So that was satisfying,” the 38-year-old said.
“I was playing a player that was playing unbelievable so I had to play better.”
Trailing by a set, Williams’ thoughts turned to her infamous second-round exit from Auckland in 2017, after which she bagged the city’s weather and said she couldn’t wait to get to Melbourne.
She was determined there would be no repeat against 86th-ranked McHale.
“Today I just got mad. I said ‘I want to win more than one match here in New Zealand so I can do this’,” she said.
“I literally thought about that. Sometimes it’s the craziest things that get you motivated.
“I just was making a lot of errors and stopped making many and tried to be a little more aggressive.”
Williams’ quarter-final on Friday will be against Germany’s Laura Siegemund, who stunned 15-year-old Coco Gauff 5-7 6-2 6-3 and robbed the tournament of what would have been a hugely-anticipated all-American contest.
Rising star Gauff couldn’t handle the dogged consistency of her lower-ranked opponent, finishing the match with 49 unforced errors including seven double faults.
Despite the urging of the crowd and regular rev-ups between games from her father Corey, Gauff appeared rattled by an inability to find her timing.
The world No.67, who took the tennis world by storm when reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon in June, struggled in what was her last singles match before making an Australian Open debut.
On the other side of the draw, Julia Goerges remained on track for a third successive Auckland crown by dispatching young Swiss Jil Teichmann in straight sets.
The 41st-ranked German faces a stiff quarter-final obstacle in fifth-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No.1 who battled to a 6-1 4-6 6-4 win over the 2017 Classic champion, American Lauren Davis.