Sparks Fly as Williams Upends a Rival

Her latest match with Serena Williams had been over for more than an hour, and Victoria Azarenka was still shaking her head in disbelief as she sat at a table in the French Open players' lounge Saturday night.

Azarenka said she had broken a chair in anger in the locker room. That seemed both understandable and fitting in light of the circumstances, which included a dubious ruling from chair umpire Kader Nouni at the end of the second set. (Match report | Pics)

Twice in the last month, Azarenka, the former world No. 1, has had Williams, the current No. 1, in her grasp only to see victory slip through her clutches.

"I don't know how she does it," Azarenka said of Williams. "When she plays against me and Maria, her level is not at all the same as when she plays against some of the others."

Williams, a 19-time Grand Slam singles champion who will next face Sloane Stephens in the fourth round of this French Open, has had her shock defeats in Paris and elsewhere. She flirted with another shock defeat in the second round, playing an abysmal match by her standards before rallying to beat the 105th-ranked Anna-Lena Friedsman in three sets.

But Williams, 33, has long reserved her best, most focused tennis for the big occasions and the most dangerous opponents. That has never been truer than in these latter stages of her career.

Saturday's 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory gave Williams a 16-3 record against Azarenka and a 9-0 record against her in Grand Slam tournaments.

Williams is 17-2 against Maria Sharapova, currently the world No. 2 and, on merit, clearly the second-best women's player of this generation.

But while Williams' career records against Azarenka and Sharapova are similar, the matchups with Azarenka have felt much more like a rivalry.

This third-round plot twister, played early in the evening as the last match on the Philippe Chatrier Court, will do nothing to change that.

Earlier this month, in the round of 16 in Madrid, Azarenka served for the match and squandered three match points against Williams before losing the third set in a tiebreaker. This time, Azarenka was up, 6-3, 4-2, before faltering with plenty of help from Williams, who began striking the ball with much more conviction and accuracy, particularly on the move.

Williams broke Azarenka back to 4-4, held to take a 5-4 lead and then jumped out to an 0-40 lead on Azarenka's next service game. Azarenka, with some clutch serving, saved three set points to get back to deuce but then hit an ill-advised backhand drop shot to give Williams another set point.

This time, Azarenka struck a deep forehand that appeared to land on the line. Williams missed a forehand into the net but quickly turned to look at the linesman after she made contact. The call of out came after her shot was completed, and the call was wrong, as Williams soon discovered, looking down at the ball mark.

Nouni, whose baritone voice is worthy of James Earl Jones, descended from his chair to inspect the mark and announced that the point would be replayed.

"It's always up to the umpire," Williams said, acknowledging that the call from the linesman had come late. "He didn't put his arm out until like five minutes later. But yeah, I mean this is tennis. This happens all the time. I even said: 'No, don't worry. The ball is in. We'll just replay the point.'"

But Nouni also had the option of giving Azarenka the point outright, which definitely seemed like the best option considering that Williams had struck her errant shot when no call had yet been made.

Azarenka, up at the net, was upset with Nouni and then exchanged words with Williams, finally putting up her hand  and waving Williams off before returning to her baseline as Williams waved her off, too, and shouted in her direction.

Williams then quickly leveled the match at one set all with a forehand winner. As Azarenka walked to her chair, she was given a code violation for "visible obscenity" from Nouni.

Asked later if she thought she was "robbed" of the point that was replayed, Azarenka used another obscenity to describe the ruling.

"And everybody knows it," she said. "But it's part of the game. Sometimes it happens this way, but I think it wasn't a fair call."

As for the exchange with Williams, Azarenka said: "It's emotions. You know, during the match it's difficult to react or not react in that moment. So I think that in that moment, I don't know if it depended too much on her. You can always give your opinion, but in the end, it was the chair umpire's call. So that was his mistake."

Azarenka later said that she "would have handled it differently" than Williams, but both also emphasized that they are friendly off the court (afterward, Azarenka gave Williams a pair of her shorts that Williams coveted).

But in the end, though Azarenka, with the French crowd behind her, won the first two games of the third set, Williams - back in command of her considerable tennis powers - won the next six games to sweep to victory.

Williams has won some major matches on the Chatrier Court, including the French Open singles titles in 2002 and 2013. Where did this match rank?

"I put that one pretty high, because I was just really down and out," she said. "And I just feel like I just really zeroed in."

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