MELBOURNE -- Serena Williams is 34 years old and has been playing professionally for two decades. She has played more than 860 matches, winning 85 percent of them, including 69 singles tournament and 21 Grand Slam titles. And that's not counting doubles. Or the Olympics. Yet she said she did something on Wednesday at the Australian Open that she had never done before on the court:
She hit a shot around the net post and past her opponent, Su-Wei Hsieh.
"It's cool. It's always cool to do something fresh and new," Williams said. "I don't know for sure if I have done that. I could be wrong, but I definitely don't remember ever hitting a shot around the net. So it was good."
So what other type of shot has she not done? Perhaps a one-handed backhand around the net while picking up her cell phone in the other hand and waving for a cup of coffee? OK, probably not. Williams also said she has never hit a shot between her legs in a match.
"Oh, I don't do those," she said. "I'm not good at those.
"I [tried to in practice] when I was younger, and I was terrible at it. I know what I'm good at, and I know things I'm not going to excel at. I'm definitely not going to excel at that shot."
So at least that's one shot her opponents need not worry about. Unfortunately, there are other deadly shots they must handle, because despite all the pre-tournament concerns regarding Williams' health, the world No. 1 is looking tough, as always.
Williams cut her extraordinary last season short after the U.S. Open -- her coach Patrick Mouratoglou said her knees are lacking cartilage -- and she withdrew from the Hopman Cup this month due to knee inflammation. She had not played a tournament in four months before this Australian Open, but she has won both matches in straight sets here. After a difficult first-round victory over Camila Giorgi, Serena blew away Hsieh 6-1, 6-2 in just an hour on Wednesday.
"I don't think I made that many errors today," said Williams, who had seven aces, including the match-winner. "Something I was hopefully trying to get back into. And I moved much better today, I think, so slowly but surely feeling a little bit better."
Williams wasn't the only prominent player with health issues heading into the Australian Open. Several players in the top 10 also had withdrawn from tournaments with injury or illness, including Maria Sharapova. She pulled out of Brisbane with a sore forearm and missed a good chunk of last season due to right-leg issues.
Like Serena, though, Sharapova appears to be in good form based on the first two rounds at the Australian Open. After winning her first round match in straight sets, she beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1 under a closed roof at Rod Laver arena. She has lost only seven games so far.
Sharapova did not have an around-the-post shot on Wednesday, but she did use a fair number of drop shots against Sasnovich. She said she is working on her drops because she was frustrated losing to her hitting partner.
"It's something that I have added to my game, and that's helped me, especially playing against opponents that stay far back," Sharapova said. "When I'm aggressive and I have depth on my shots, it's just good to have that variety to bring them in, to move forward myself. I mean, I had a couple of good ones, I had a couple of really crappy ones. I'd say it was pretty mediocre today."
Next up for Sharapova is American Lauren Davis, who beat Magdalena Rybarikova. The two have never faced each other. If Sharapova wins, she could face a more difficult opponent in the fourth round: 18-year-old rising star Belinda Bencic. And after that, she could have to face her better, older and much more experienced and dominating nemesis in the quarters: Serena.
Williams, meanwhile, plays another 18-year-old, Russia's Daria Kasatkina. The two have never played against each other, but Kasatkina did beat Serena's sister, Venus, in Auckland two weeks ago.
"I don't think it's going to be easy," Serena said. "Any time someone is beating Venus, they are more than likely playing really good. So I definitely will be ready for that. I obviously will ask Venus what she thought of the match, and I'm sure Patrick will know everything about her match and stuff. He's really good at studying. I'll be ready for that."
Kasatkina needs to study, as well. And now she has another shot for which to prepare.