Summary Serena Williams now sees her bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam fall at the first hurdle.
MELBOURNE: Serena Williams dominating run at the majors has ended in an upset quarterfinal loss to American teenager Sloane Stephens at the Australian Open.
The 15-time Grand Slam winner injured her back in the second set and her serve was considerably hampered but she battled all the way against 19-year-old Stephens, who held her composure to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday.
It was the first loss since Aug. 17 for Williams, and ended a run of 20 consecutive match wins. She hadn t lost a match at a Grand Slam tournament since the French Open, where the only first-round exit in her career sparked a resurgence in the second half of 2012 that included titles at Wimbledon, the London Olympics, the U.S. Open and the WTA Championship.
After winning her first Grand Slam quarterfinal against the odds, Stephens will meet defending champion Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals on Thursday.
With her most famous fan sitting in the crowd wearing a shirt reminding her to keep calm, top-ranked Azarenka overcame some early jitters to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1 in the earlier quarterfinal match on Rod Laver Arena.
After dropping serve in a long fourth game which went to deuce 10 times, Azarenka recovered to dominate the rest of the match against Kuznetsova, a two-time major winner who was floating dangerously in the draw with a No. 75 ranking as she recovers from a knee injury.
Azarenka s American rapper friend, Redfoo, returned from a concert in Malaysia to attend Wednesday s quarterfinal match.
Wearing a red sleeveless T-shirt that read "Keep Calm and Bring Out the Bottles," the name of his next single, Redfoo stood, clapped and yelled "Come on, Vika!" during the tight first set.
Asked if it helped to have her No. 1 fan wearing a keep calm logo, Azarenka said "I was looking more at the part that says Bring out the bottles. "
Of her game, she added, "I m just glad I could produce my good tennis when it was needed."
Williams loss was a boost for Azarenka, who lost all five head-to-heads in 2012 and is 1-11 in their career meetings.
In the men s quarterfinals, 17-time major winner Roger Federer was playing No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a night match and U.S. Open champion Andy Murray was to meet Jeremy Chardy of France.
Novak Djokovic is already through the semifinals after his 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych on Tuesday night. In the semifinals, Djokovic will meet No. 4-seeded David Ferrer.
