'Yeah, it's true," bemoaned Angelique Kerber, as if she had been waiting for the rain to tumble on her Australian Open quarter-final parade. "I think my serve was not the best today."
In a rush of self-reassurance came a declaration that she knows she can serve better and faster. Against Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday she will simply have to; she has done so in most of their six meetings yet still won only two sets. 
The size of her task is not lost on Barbora Strycova, the Czech whose misfortune it has been to run into Azarenka in the past three Australian Opens. Azarenka is a two-time champion here, seeded 14 courtesy of an injury-interrupted 2015. Strycova's tea leaves reveal little joy for Kerber - or anyone the former world No. 1 from Belarus meets this week.
"She's very hungry, and I think she is the one who can think about the trophy," Strycova said after playing well yet losing 6-2, 6-4. "To play against Vika, it's tough because you have to always try to do something more."
In her first meeting with fellow German Annika Beck, Kerber felt the pressure most when simply trying to get the ball into play. The relationship between power and success can be overblown in tennis, particularly the women's game, but the preferred mindset is still wanting the ball in your own hand rather than your opponent's. Kerber admitted that in saving a first-round match point against Japanese Misaki Doi she had virtually had "one leg on the plane back home". If her predictable, swinging left-hander's serve does not improve markedly she might as well have the other leg shackled to the Rod Laver Arena tram lines.
Sporadically checking the Kerber-Beck first-set scoreline gave the impression they were "on serve" when "on service break" was more accurate. The match featured 16 games and 10 breaks, plus 13 break points saved. Kerber served one ace, Beck none. Kerber barely won half her points on serve; three of the four games the victor dropped were off her own racquet.
In short, Beck kept Kerber on court for 88 minutes despite holding serve just once. As she crouches to receive serve in Wednesday's quarter-final, watch for Azarenka licking her lips.
"She gives me always tough matches ... an amazing fighter," Azarenka said of the seventh-seeded Kerber. "I have to ... play my best game to beat her."
Their last encounter was in the Brisbane final a fortnight ago, a 6-3, 6-1 stroll that set Azarenka on a white-hot path that has continued in Melbourne, where she has dropped only 11 games enroute to the quarters. In Brisbane she cited off-season toil on her fitness and her serve; Azarenka sees a foe who can run all day, and expects a more aggressive approach from Kerber on serve. "I think I must serve for sure better, because she's returning very well," Kerber said. "Be more aggressive, playing aggressive. Moving good and actually playing my game like I'm playing on practice and just focusing more on me and not on her game."
She will need the little things to go her way, not as they did when serving at 3-2, 40-15 in the first set against Beck. A deep groundstroke was called out as Kerber lunged at it, Beck challenged immediately as Kerber's one-handed backhand floated gently back into play.
When a replay showed Beck's shot had caught the line a let should have been played. But chair umpire Marijana Veljovic had missed Kerber's ball clearing the net and awarded the point to Beck despite her opponent's protests.
"It was back, right?" Kerber later laughed. "But she told me that my shot was in the net. What should I say? I couldn't say, like, challenge or whatever. I mean, that's not yet.   Maybe in the future."
As Azarenka casts a long shadow over her, she knows the least she can do is serve it up to her.