World No 1 Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are through to the third round of the Australian Open after comprehensive wins on Wednesday.
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Wednesday at the Australian Open the world No. 1 and defending champion was in sizzling form against Su-Wei Hsieh, winning in exactly one hour to move into the third round here.
“It all started here – this is where I played my first Grand Slam right on this court and I’m still going, it’s such an honor”, said Williams, who has a 70-9 win-loss record at Melbourne Park since her debut in 1998.
“I played two previous tournaments and didn’t quite get the results I wanted but I have a very strong belief in the way I want to play and the way I want to be thinking”. “I don’t know how, just, you know I was closing the eyes and everything was coming in and I keep doing it and I was doing well”. She had not played a tournament in four months before this Australian Open, but she has won both matches in straight sets here.
“It’s great”, Williams said, when asked about her knee injury.
Because of her nationality switch, Konta is unlikely to be back on the main showcourt for her second round encounter with Carina Witthoeft or Zheng Saisai.
“She’s really young and really aggressive”, Williams said.
They were joined in the third round by another Russian, last year’s losing finalist Maria Sharapova.
Konta, born in Sydney, was making her first appearance in Melbourne but did not look out of place as she got stuck into Williams early on, absorbing the seven-time grand slam winner’s power and manoeuvring her around the court superbly. “The weather changes. Overall, I’m just happy that I could get the match in because I know many players are waiting for the rain to stop”.
Sharapova, who won the title here in 2008 and has reached three other finals, completed the win in 71 minutes and will next play either Lauren Davis of the USA or Magadalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.
Konta, who reached the fourth round of the US Open past year, enhanced her growing reputation further by thrashing the eighth-seed, dropping just six games in a 79-minute rout on Rod Laver Arena.
“She made very few errors in those two games and was serving incredibly well to hold at 5-1”.
No. 13 Vinci beat Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-3 to advance in the opposite quarter of the same half of the draw.
Djokovic has said he didn’t believe any elite players were involved.
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Fernando Verdasco rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win the last two sets, recovering a break in the fifth as well, claiming a 7-6 (6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, only his third victory in 17 matches against his fellow Spanish lefthander.
