NEW YORK — A day before facing Venus Williams – and a partisan crowd – at the U.S. Open, Italy’s Sara Errani came across a video posted on Twitter that gave her a little extra motivation.
It showed a pair of former players and coaches, Brad Gilbert and Darren Cahill, forecasting Friday at Flushing Meadows. Both picked Williams to win.
Additional Images
The 13th-seeded Errani’s ears perked up particularly when Gilbert referred to her “cottage cheese” serve and predicted she’d win only four games.
So much for that. In a riveting third-round match of wild momentum swings, the 19th-seeded Williams, a two-time U.S. Open champion, came within two points of victory four times before succumbing to Errani 6-0, 0-6, 7-6 (5).
As if needing a reminder of what she’d seen online, Errani was interviewed for TV by Cahill before the match, and by Gilbert afterward.
“Let’s just say that during the match I thought about that (video) more than once,” said Errani, who pounded her chest with a fist and put a finger to her lips on court as if to hush doubters – or the loud folks in Arthur Ashe Stadium pulling for her American opponent.
Williams is 34, dealing with an autoimmune disease, and hasn’t been to the fourth round at a major since 2011. She also played a doubles match Thursday with her sister Serena that lasted about 2 1/2 hours and finished shortly before 8 p.m.
“I guess the schedule definitely wasn’t ideal,” Williams said. “It was just such a late match.”
After losing to Errani, Williams went on court again for doubles and won that one, although she was treated by a trainer.
Williams did not blame injury or fatigue for the way she failed to close out Errani, including getting broken while serving at 5-3 in the third.
“I went for too much,” explained Williams, 3-0 against Errani until Friday.
“She just played one of the best matches of her life,” Williams added.
Errani’s next opponent will be another surprise winner: 32-year-old qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia, who eliminated No. 2-seeded Simona Halep of Romania 7-6 (6), 6-2. Lucic-Baroni hadn’t reached the fourth round at a major since Wimbledon in 1999.
“I feel,” she said, “like a little kid; like this is the first time ever.”
Halep, the French Open runner-up and Wimbledon semifinalist, had three set points in the first while ahead 5-2, before collapsing.
Half of the top eight seeded women already are out, with Halep joining No. 6 Angelique Kerber (beaten 6-1, 7-5 Friday by 17-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland), and earlier losers No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 8 Ana Ivanovic.
No. 5 Maria Sharapova, a five-time major champion, was hoping to avoid another upset when she played 2013 Wimbledon runner-up Sabine Lisicki in Friday’s last match.
The men’s draw, in contrast, has gone pretty much to form. No. 2 Roger Federer’s 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Australia’s Sam Groth at night closed the second round with only two top-20 men departed: No. 11 Ernests Gulbis and No. 15 Fabio Fognini, both eliminated Friday.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.