Oracene Price's urges to "fight" were clearly intended for her daughter, but they appeared to immediately fall on deaf ears, and with good reason. On the last point of the tiebreaker she eventually lost, Venus hurt herself on a twisting backhand volley.
Writhing in pain and clutching near her stomach as she walked back to her courtside chair, a WTA trainer was called and Williams took a medical timeout. A few minutes later, she returned with her upper right thigh taped and a whole new attitude.
She later said she injured her "psoas" muscle, which flexes the hip and spinal column.
"It was really tough, but I'm a long way from home and it's such a long way I didn't want to go back yet," Williams said after surviving through a 6-7 (6), 6-0, 6-4 second-round win over her Czech opponent, Sandra Zahlavova.
"You've got to be able to play under all kinds of circumstances — good, bad, strange, weird, all of the above. I had to just calm myself down. In the middle of a match like that, you can get a little hysterical."
Her fighting spirit — and the strapping and perhaps a painkiller — helped continue a streak in which Williams has completed all 257 singles matches she has started at Grand Slams.
Never has she retired with an injury in a major.
Still, she needed some help at the end, asking courtside staff — first chair umpire Alison Lang of Britain, then a ballboy — to help carry off her equipment. Williams was well enough to carry off her glitzy handbag, though, which went with her outfit — a revealing peek-a-boo lattice-style top with a multicolored satin short skirt she later referred to as her "Alice in Wonderland" outfit.
Elsewhere at Melbourne Park on Wednesday, as top-seeded woman Caroline Wozniacki advanced.
Wozniacki advanced with a 6-1, 6-0 win over American Vania King in the Danish player's first major as No. 1. The 20-year-old reached the third round for a 13th consecutive Grand Slam.
Serena Williams is injured and not defending her title in Australia.