Oh, Ski Boots. She's young and you can't blame her. But she choked hard against ReRe. She served for the match at 40-0, and double faulting and missing an easy smash for the win. This would have been her official coronation as the player to watch in 2009. But as it was, she played well, gained a lot of respect, showed some guts in not going away after dropping the second set, and the match should give her a lot of confidence going into Sydney where, depending on the draw, she should easily be a quarterfinalist.
But still. Serving at 40-love for the match and you lose? Can we all agree that Serena may be the most difficult player on the tour to close out? Stosur couldn't do it, Boots couldn't do it. What makes you think it'll be any easier for the lower players to do it on the big stage of a Slam?
As for Serena, to be fair, she didn't play great and seemed to be hampered by some niggling injuries. At one point she was stretching her back and in the third she was redoing her ankle tape job. It wouldn't surprise me if she withdrew from the tournament. This is a lot of tennis to be playing in advance of the AO, and she doesn't have an easy road. She plays Lena next and then most likely Dinara (who faces Ai in the SF) in the final.
