'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. 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. 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."