If there was one take-away from the peculiar events of today’s semifinal between Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic, it is that the latter woman did not impress in its aftermath.

Despite her one solitary victory in Istanbul, the week seemed to double as Jankovic climbing the city’s highest building and triumphantly screaming “I’m back!” from the rooftops. Yet the balance of questions in her post-match dissection tipped precariously towards the topic of her opponent’s performance rather than her own week.

“Yeah, I never saw [Serena] do this when she's leading,” Jankovic asserted. “Every time she has a lead, she's running for the balls and hitting those big serves. For some reason, every time she starts losing, she starts serving slower or not running for certain balls.”

“It's not the first time when we played that she's doing this,” said the Serb. “That's, I think, her way of playing or maybe when she plays against me. But I think it's also, when you play – winning or losing – you have to be up there and be a good sportsman.”

The melodramatic performance in question had started early. After immediately edging back a surprise early break from Jankovic, Serena Williams sat in her chair and threw a towel over her head. What initially appeared an innocuous and generic act of a player attempting to drown out the ballistic sights and sounds careering around the stadium transformed into something else. Serena Williams was sobbing. Despite no real indication of any injury, the deep breaths and heaving beneath the towel were impossible to ignore.

As onlookers attempted to think back in a futile attempt to pinpoint the cause, out she came back onto the baseline. She prepared to serve, she was ready to serve and before anyone else could tell, 10 straight points appeared on her side of the scoreboard. By the time that anyone could begin to compute the happenings of the previous few minutes, Williams was a game away from the set and back in the hunt for the final title of the year.

This theme would continue throughout the match. Hopeless upon helpless attempts at competing, punctuated by stone cold immobility and first serves that trickled onto the court like a rabbit skipping into a field of daisies. In one game, Serena’s first serve recorded at 145 kilometers per hour, 140, 125.  Later, a series of three straight serves soared past 190 kilometers per hour.

In the immediate aftermath of Williams’ victory, out stepped coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who was charged with the unfavourable job of explaining his student’s action. His explanation turned out to be a series of shrugs and headscratches, his face sheepishly apologetic as he disclosed that he had no idea why Serena had played such a match.

Luckily, the woman herself did have an explanation. Rather than explaining it away with another injury of explicit issue, she gave a more general reason for her strange performance.

“Physically I think I was fine,” claimed Serena. “Or I don't know. I just hit a wall. I was so tired. Well, physically I was so tired, just even standing.”

“I think I played a lot of tennis this year, so I don't know,” she continued. “After a while, I felt like a big rush of air just come out of me, and I really had to pull myself through that match. I don't know how I did it.”

When told this response, Jankovic did not hesitate to challenge its credibility.

“If she's tired, the other [players] are way more tired, because she has had easier matches than most of these girls,” said the Serb.  “Na Li played three sets against me, and Kvitova and I did [as well], and Serena is the only one who has had matches in two sets.”

And so it carried on: Serena Williams maintaining that her form was the result of tiredness, Jankovic denying and disputing everything possible. It was just like the old days on this Saturday in Istanbul.