In a tournament that has already seen its fair share of upsets, the Australian Open could be set for more drama when the third round gets underway in Melbourne on Friday.
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“And I moved much better today, I think, so slowly but surely feeling a little bit better”, Williams said via the tournament’s official website about her performance in the second round.
“It’s great that I had the opportunity to play against Venus this year and now against Serena, so I will just enjoy it. Enjoy and try to show my best tennis and for sure nobody is unbeatable so I will try”.
The wait could be ended by Konta, who breezed into the Australian Open third round on Thursday and can look ahead with confidence given nine of the 16 seeds in her half of the draw are out.
Canadian Eugenie Bouchard admitted her heart was pounding during an Australian Open second-round defeat against fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
“It’s always cool to do something fresh and new”, she said. And while Williams played along for a while and begrudgingly answered a couple questions about Vinci, the press conference took a nosedive when she was asked if she has gone back and watched her loss to Vinci yet. “I guess it will be fixed by the next round”, shrugged the 29th seed, whose next opponent Berdych has reached the last two semi-finals at Melbourne Park. He beat 19-year-old French wildcard entry Quentin Halys 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (3) on Wednesday night to reach the third round here for the 10th straight year, moving another step closer to equaling the all-time record of six Australian titles set by Roy Emmerson in the 1960s when it was amateur.
The favorites had no trouble with their lesser-ranked opponents on Melbourne Park’s main court on Wednesday, as No. 5-seed Maria Sharapova started the day with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich to notch her 50th career Australian Open victory.
“I felt really good and confident today about it”.
‘This is always a weird grand slam because you never quite know where you’re at with the top players. Sharapova hasn’t played Davis but goes into the match fully recovered from a left forearm injury that forced her to withdraw from the Brisbane International, where she was defending champion.
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka was the most impressive of the women’s winners when she hammered Danka Kovinic 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round for the loss of just three games in total.
Federer will next play Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
For a long time, Rod Laver Arena just about belonged to Roger Federer.
Williams fired down seven aces, tallied 26 winners and broke serve on four occasions as she made light work of the world number 90. That didn’t leave Dolgopolov any room for error, and he did need at least some as he was broken five times en route to losing 6-3, 7-5, 6-1. “Any time someone is beating Venus they are more than likely playing really good”, said Serena.
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Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko shocked 23rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova as she continues her comeback after having a baby in 2013.
