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Williams had a back complaint she'd tried to keep secret before Sunday but Ivanovic noticed almost immediately that her serve wasn't as fast as she'd expected, and she started taking big swipes at it.



Williams hadn't lost a match since August, and went 78-4 in 2013. She came into the fourth round with those 25 straight wins, the second-longest streak of her career, and it was her 70th match at Melbourne Park, a record in the Open era. Williams had just set the mark for most match wins (61) ever at the Australian Open with her third-round victory.

The No. 1-ranked Williams didn't move her feet well, and was lunging for balls. When she tried to step up the intensity in the third set, her grunts becoming louder and more frequent until she toned it down after spraying a wild backhand wide in the next-to-last game, Ivanovic matched her stroke for stroke.

"It wasn't the best," Williams told a news conference, after being told that her coach had leaked news of a back problem.



Li Na of China Ekaterina celebrates a point won against Makarova of Russia during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in
30-seeded Eugenie Bouchard.


Novak Djokovic continued his bid for a fourth straight title here with a 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 win over Fabio Fognini in 1 1/2 hours, while No. 3-seeded David Ferrer advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Florian Mayer 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.




She had 33 winners, including 20 on her forehand side. She also had a little bit of luck, when she drove a backhand into the top of the net, and it looped over and caught the line at an important stage of the third set.

"I had to remind myself all the time just to stay in the moment, because there were moments in the match where it could have gone either way," Ivanovic said. "But I really just believed in my game and stepped up when I needed to."

Ivanovic won her only major at the French Open in 2008, giving her the No. 1 ranking for a total of 12 weeks. But then she only advanced past the fourth round once at 22 Grand Slams.




Williams, pausing to concentrate, was given a warning for a time violation in her last service game, and fended off a match point when Ivanovic netted a return. 

In the next game, though, Ivanovic set up triple match point when Williams hit a service return too long, and then clinched it just under two hours.


"Maybe I wasn't the best physically, but that had nothing to do with it," Williams said. "I think Ana just played a really good match. She did what it takes to win."

