Ever since Steffi Graf retired in 1999, Serena Williams has been the best pressure player in women’s tennis. This well-deserved reputation was only affirmed on Wednesday afternoon in Rod Laver Arena, as the nine-time Grand Slam champion advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 win over Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In yet another dance with death, the younger but more accomplished Williams sister elevated her game just before bowing out of a major tournament. It was the latest high-wire act for a woman who unnecessarily tempts fate on far too many occasions, but who manages to endure her own inconsistencies by maxing out when she has to.

Late in the second set, Kuznetsova–the eighth-seeded Russian known for cracking as often as Serena excels in the late rounds of slams–held a 7-5, 5-3 lead, and stood one game away from making the final four an all-Russian affair. One day after Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva punched tickets to the semis in the top half of the women’s field, the Kooze was on the verge of joining Elena Dementieva as a semifinalist from the bottom half of the draw. In addition to ensuring a Grand Slam championship for her homeland, Kuznetsova was about to register one of the more redemptive and satisfying wins of her career. One-time slam champions such as the Kooze need a second crown to validate their credentials. Beating a Williams sister to reach a slam semifinal would have given Kuznetsova the kind of confidence boost that has been so elusive over the past few years.

But just when it seemed that the laws of nature would be overturned, Serena Williams restored order… and Svetlana Kuznetsova tightened up just enough to stop short of the finish line.

It needs to be said that Kuznetsova did not choke away this match–not in a larger sense, at any rate. Williams reacted to her precarious position by easily holding at 3-5 in the second set, forcing her Russian counterpart to serve out the match at 5-4. In this telltale game, Kuznetsova watched as Serena ran down hard-hit groundstrokes and ripped forehand returns on the Russian’s soft second serves. After playing passively throughout a first set played in outdoor heat, Williams remained timid after a 27-minute delay that enabled Tennis Australia to cover Laver Arena with a retractable roof. Even with the newly comfortable climate-controlled conditions–created in response to the invocation of the tournament’s extreme heat policy–the younger Williams sister couldn’t find her form against Kuznetsova.

Not, at least, until her tennis life depended on a revival. When Kuznetsova served for the match at 5-4, Williams announced her reemergence with high-level tennis. Yes, Kuznetsova butchered an easy volley at 30-40 to give Serena a set-tying and match-changing service break, but on the first five points of that game, it was Serena who stole the show. Kuznetsova cracked on one point, but the Russian hardly choked in a more expansive fashion. Serena did win 10 of the last 11 games of the match, and the American did cruise once that Kuznetsova volley floated wide, but it was only on one point that the Russian truly blinked in the heat of battle. For the most part, Serena Williams took this match away from the No. 8 seed.

So it was, then, that the laws of the jungle were reaffirmed in the world of women’s tennis. When pushed to the brink of extinction in Melbourne, Serena Williams summoned the serenity that has enabled her to thrive under pressure so many times before.

As one attempts to put this match in perspective, it’s worth recalling just how many times Serena has staved off setbacks and kept the grim reaper at bay.

In each of her three previous Australian Open championship runs, Serena stood just one or two points from defeat at some point in the tournament. In the 2003 semifinals, she came back from 1-5 in the third and fought off two match points to defeat Kim Clijsters, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the 2005 semifinals, Serena fought off three match points before outlasting Maria Sharapova, 2-6, 7-5, 8-6. And in the 2007 quarters, Serena was just two points away from losing to Shahar Peer before a rally carried her past the Israeli upstart, 3-6, 6-2, 8-6.

On top of these Grand Slam heroics in Australia, Serena has made a habit of saving match points in lower-tier events as well. In the Sydney tournament that preceded this year’s Australian Open, Serena saved four match points in a win over Samantha Stosur, and three more match points in a victory over Caroline Wozniacki. The more one studies the career of Serena Williams, the more one realizes how much of a stone-cold killer this athlete has always been, especially when the odds seem stacked against her.

Some of Serena’s fiercest critics would say that the younger Williams sister’s career suffers in comparison to other all-time greats, due to the inability of her competitors to drive the stake through her heart in match games and (especially) match points. In a larger context, however, such a line of analysis is impoverished and inadequate, because an individual athlete can only be measured by results and the opposing players one must defeat in order to achieve at the highest levels of competition. Yes, women like Svetlana Kuznetsova do indeed fall short with disappointing regularity in the later rounds of slams, but that’s partly a function of Serena Williams’s ability to reach the winner’s circle again and again. Her opponents might shrink in the biggest moments, but don’t let that fact diminish the considerable and consequential legacy of Serena Williams, who is once again in the hunt for a Grand Slam title Down Under.

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