She's fallen and she can't get up.
Serena Williams' title drought now will approach eight months after losing in the fourth round of the Miami Open to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 on Monday, according to the Miami Herald.
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It's only Williams' fourth tournament in which she has come up short since winning the Cincinnati Masters in August, but it's also her earliest exit among the losses. She had reached the finals of the Australian Open and BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, and the semifinals at last year's U.S. Open. For any other player, this would not be an issue.
Serena is not any other player. She is clearly getting bothered by her recent rash of premature exits and could be losing confidence in her own play.
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"I did the best that I could,'' Williams said, "so to the fans, I did the best that I could today and I can't win every match. These players come out and they play me like they've never played before in their lives. So, you know, it's the best that I could do. I have to be 300 percent every day.''
When asked what was the difference in the match, Serena sent back a dismissive volley.
"Well, she won more games than me I guess,'' Williams said before cutting off her postmatch press conference at two minutes, 40 seconds.
The fourth-round loss marks her earliest exit in Miami since 2000 when she lost to Jennifer Capriati also in the fourth round, the Herald added.
Williams won seven tournaments in 2012, 11 tournaments in 2013, seven tournaments in 2014, and five more in 2015. Serena has not had a four-tournament drought since the end of the 2011 season and the beginning of 2012.
Clearly, Williams has lost some of her mystique since losing to Roberta Vinci at the semifinals of the U.S. Open in Septemeber. Serena was trying to complete the calendar Grand Slam but showed frayed nerves in the loss to the unseeded Vinci.
Seeing Williams as vulnerable seems to have given her foes some confidence that she isn't at mentally tough as she once portrayed.
Williams may be a victim of her own success, but going winless in four events qualifies as a serious concern, if not a crisis, at this stage of her career.
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