After Australian Open disappointment, Serena Williams still has eyes on 24 - USA TODAY

Sandra Harwitt Special to USA TODAY Sports

Published 7:14 AM EST Jan 23, 2019

MELBOURNE — Serena Williams is still intent on winning her 24th career major — even if the Australian Open didn't go as planned.

Williams fell short to seventh-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in the quarterfinals Wednesday despite having four match points. It was Williams' fourth Grand Slam since winning her 23rd major at the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant.

“Right now (it) would be Roland Garros because that’s the next one, the next Grand Slam for me,” said Williams of the upcoming clay-court major in May.

The 16th-seeded Williams, who is aiming to tie Margaret Court's record 24 Grand Slam singles trophies, was pensive as she discussed her defeat to Pliskova, who moved into an Australian Open semifinal for the first time in her career.

Williams acknowledged it’s been difficult to temper her mixed results with high expectations since coming back to tennis last March after 14 months away from the game. She gave birth to a daughter, Alexis Olympia, in September 2017, and suffered from dangerous post-delivery blood clots.

She’s played in eight tournaments since her return, and the closest she’s come to increasing her title count of 72 was appearing in the Wimbledon and US Open final.

Patience has never been her strong suit.

“The big picture for me is always winning,” she admitted. “I’m not going to sit here and lie about that. But it hasn’t happened yet, but I feel like it’s going to happen. Just keep taking it one match at a time, just keep soldiering on, I guess.

“I do like my attitude. I like that I don’t want to go out here and say, ‘I expect to lose because I had a year off, I’ve been playing for 10 months. I’m not supposed to win,’ I don’t have that attitude.”

Williams presented as a star in the sportsmanship department after the quarterfinal loss. She credited Pliskova with playing “lights out” tennis.

She also insisted her loss had nothing to do with rolling her left ankle on the first of four match points, which took place in the seventh game of the final set. From that point, she never won any of the remaining 10 points played in her own service games.

Williams marked the defeat down to another life experience that will help her avoid a similar pitfall in the future.

“I don’t think it’s any easier. I don’t really take losses well,” she said. “Next time I’m up 5-1 against anybody, whether it’s her or anyone, I just need to make sure I play lights out when I have match points.

“It’s little things like that that I used to do, always do, that I need matches to know that. Okay, this is when you go psycho, when you have match point. It’s a good learning experience to know the next time that I have match point, like, ‘Okay, just like go bananas on it.”

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