“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.