Australian Open 2012: Serena Williams' Lousy Exit

“I can think of a hundred things I can do better.”

This is how Serena Williams described her fourth-round dismissal at the first Grand Slam event of 2012—the Australian Open.

That's a lousy exit.

When you are Serena Williams—a 13-time major champ, including five Australians—and your vanquisher is an unseeded, 56th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova who has lost in the first round of the last six tournaments she has played...

That's a lousy exit, too.

At one point during the second set of their match, Makarova hit a winner near, but not next to, the baseline. Serena Williams did not even run for the ball.

It was then that this writer turned his attention elsewhere.

Why? I decided...well you know, that Williams was playing kind of...lousy.

To verify: Williams won one return game the entire match (against an average server to below average server), made 37 unforced errors, served a low 52 percent and so on. Statistically, her bad play in this match could be documented endlessly.

Said the great Chris Evert—someone who is one of Williams' foremost boosters, and who is now commentating on the event for ESPN, “I’ve never seen her play so poorly.”

A reputable sports outlet put it another way, “Williams couldn’t bring it against Makarova...”

The victor of the match, Makarova, was in truth ripe for the taking, but she found serendipitous victory instead, "I played her in Beijing and I was really afraid of her because she's a great player and it's really tough to play against her.”

Serena Williams could not even intimidate her way to a win—as she often does—on the hard courts of Rod Laver Arena.

The Australian Open is a straight-shooting major championship—with its humanity-wilting heat and its opening-act, premier status, either you're ready for it or you're not.

Serena Williams was in no way ready to compete here.

During one of Serena Williams' recent self-analysis diatribes, she offered a mild bombshell revelation, “I don't love tennis today, but I'm here...I don't like working out; I don't like anything that has to do with working physically."

It sure seemed exactly that way versus Makarova.