MELBOURNE - A "crazy" Serena Williams exited the Australian Open at the hands of Jelena Jankovic on Tuesday, blaming poor shot selection and a mystery injury for her 6-3 6-4 quarterfinal defeat.
The 2007 champion turned in a listless performance as third seed Jankovic moved her around thecourt to great effect, forcing errors from the American and taking her opportunities to reach the last four.
Williams said she did not want to make any excuses but then said she had been affected by an unknown ailment.
"I think that I went crazy, maybe, and I made a lot of mistakes," she told reporters. "I didn't really play the game I wanted to play.
"I was having some issues, but I don't like to make excuses. We won't discuss those."
However, the seventh seed, who won her eighth grand slam title at Melbourne Park in 2007, then proceeded to say that she had been below-par throughout the match.
"I didn't move the way I traditionally want to move, and I wasn't feeling 100 per cent. But as an athlete you know not every day you're going to feel 100 per cent, and some days you have to win feeling 30 per cent.
"I was definitely feeling it (the ailment), I would say throughout the whole match from the first game," she said.
"I wasn't moving the way I wanted to and the way I was in the previous rounds and I wasn't able to serve the way I wanted to, so I think maybe that could have affected my serve, at least.
"But I think Jelena played some good tennis and she hung in there. She played really solid. It's not really an issue. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses. I lost because Jelena played better than me and I made too many errors."
Having come out of nowhere following a succession of injury problems to win at Melbourne Park 12 months ago, the former world number one was heavily tipped for the title again.
"I'm obviously extremely disappointed," she said. "I'm one that enjoys the battles, and I enjoy the victories as well. But I'm definitely not really happy right now, especially not with my performance.
"I definitely couldn't find any rhythm out there. I felt like my shots were spraying and everything like that. I was just kind of all over the place."
