Alicia Molik was in the form of her life as she entered her fourth-round match against Venus Williams at Australian Open 2005, the tournament’s centenary year.
Williams, then a four-time major winner and a former world No.1, had comfortably beaten Molik in all three of their previous matches.
But the Australian was certain it was going to be different this time around.
“I wasn't the same player as the times I'd played her before,” Molik told ausopen.com. “I hadn't won as much, I didn't have the same ranking, I hadn't beaten as many top-tier players.
"I was riding high. I felt invincible. I was training so well, so hard. I was obviously fit, strong. No matter what the score was, what the temperature was, whether I had niggles, soreness – I just knew I'd get through all these difficult matches.”
Molik beat the American superstar 7-5 7-6(3) under lights at Rod Laver Arena to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, a match you can now watch in full on the Australian Open TV YouTube channel.
It’s one of a growing number of full matches uploaded to the channel from the archives.
Peak of her powers
Molik was riding high because she’d been one of the world’s best-performed players in the previous six months.
She won 23 of her last 27 matches in 2004, vaulting from world No.26 in early August to finish the year at No.13. In this fruitful period she won Olympic singles bronze at the Athens Games, plus three WTA titles, including the biggest of her career at the Tier I tournament in Zurich thanks to beating Maria Sharapova in the final.
Molik opened 2005 with another tournament title at the Sydney International and began her AO campaign with three straight-sets wins.
She arrived at Rod Laver Arena to face Williams on an eight-match winning streak, and felt as ready as she was ever going to be – helped by the fact she and coach David Taylor had meticulously prepared for this specific match-up.
"It didn't happen overnight. A lot of my confidence came from wins, but I had an incredibly long and hard pre-season,” Molik recalled.
“I put in a lot of months of really, really hard work, on the court in the hot summer, in the gym – I remember it pretty clearly. It was pretty full-on to prepare myself for everything and anything.
“It was the first (Australian) summer I really felt capable of delivering. And I was delivering. I'd won Sydney, I was playing really well. There's so many matches you go into and you're sort of, ‘yeah, I've got a chance, I feel I might be able to do this’. But I actually knew I could beat her.
“(Dave and I) really spent a lot of time to think through and map out how the match probably would go. So I felt like in a way I'd sort of played it out in my mind a number of times before actually walking out on the court.”
Time to execute
The plan was clear, and effective. Molik targeted Williams’ weaker forehand wing with her serve – she was especially successful slicing her serve out wide, and jamming Williams with body serves – and with her own heavy forehand in cross-court rallies.
She countered Williams’ power with her improved fitness and court coverage, and used her slice backhand to extend rallies, patiently waiting for the right moment to attack.
When she got her chances, she did, ripping big forehands either for clean winners or to keep Williams pinned back and off balance.
The final two points of the match perfectly demonstrated her approach. Leading 5-3 in the tiebreak, Molik sliced a vicious serve wide to Williams’ forehand, drawing a return error. A heavy forehand on her first match point forced another error.
Molik jumped for joy as she achieved her best Grand Slam result. The win also confirmed she would make her top-10 debut following the tournament.
"It's right up there,” Molik said when asked if this result was her career highlight.
“Because Venus was really close to being at her best then. It was incredibly significant. Not just (beating) Venus; it was the round of 16 at the Australian Open. It also meant so much, because it's on home soil.
"It was incredible. It's sort of that moment you go, oh God, I did it! I can do this! I did it at home – it's twice as hard on home soil.
“That night I felt like I was really in the zone. It was the culmination I think of the hard work, the belief, the preparation, the match wins in the lead-up, for confidence.
“I had a great summer, and there was a lot of expectation. A lot of other Australian Opens I felt overwhelmed. I felt I wasn't sure about myself or my tennis, in the same way.
“But that was the summer that I was able to really deal well with a lot of that adversity.”
Quarterfinal time
Molik very nearly kept the dream run going.
She pushed world No.1 Lindsay Davenport to the brink in a dramatic quarterfinal, serving what she thought was an ace, which would have given her an 8-7 lead in the third set. Electronic line-calling technology was not used in competition at this time, meaning she could not review the call.
Molik ultimately fell 6-4 4-6 9-7, the closest she came to a major semifinal.
"It's probably the time in my career and my life where I felt I was at my peak powers,” said Molik, whose journey just a few months later was completely derailed by vestibular neuritis.
“(When people reflect on my career) it's this one Australian Open that comes up all the time. I mean the good thing is people think I did it like multiple times (laughter). The tennis enthusiasts remember the (missed line) call – I sound like a dinosaur, pre-Hawkeye, green Rebound Ace. If you spoke about that with players these days, this generation, they wouldn't know what you're talking about. They were still in kindergarten.
"It was so difficult to play in my era, yet I felt so privileged to play in it. Because to say that, every week, I was playing against Serena, Venus, Maria, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Lindsay… It was a really tough, robust, healthy line-up of household names and stars, and players that really had strong followings right around the world.
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“It was quite amazing to experience that. Martina Navratilova came back at the time I played too; I was fortunate enough to play doubles with her.
“I look back and think, far out, that was strong. It was fun too, it was a fun time, a fun era. Serious star power there."