Serena Williams of the United States hits a forehand return to Daria Kasatkina of Russian Federation during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.
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The 21-time grand slam champion will face another Russian in the next round, with Margarita Gasparyan standing in the way of Williams and a sixth successive major quarter-final.
Angelique Kerber has advanced to the fourth round after beating Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-3.No. 7-seeded Kerber’s win on Saturday makes her the highest-ranked player in the bottom half of the draw, following No. 3 Garbine Muguruza’s loss earlier in the day.
12th seed Bencic is the first player into the round of 16 after fighting back from a set down to overhaul Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko in three sets. “She didn’t give me even a chance to play how I play”.
World number five Maria Sharapova battled past petite Lauren Davis and into the Australian Open fourth round on Friday as she edges closer to another showdown with arch-rival Serena Williams.
“It would be very unrealistic for me to stick my head in the sand and say: “This doesn’t exist”. I am not that surprised, she played well in the French Open and was such a good player. I mean, you can see all my emotions.
Just like in her first two rounds, Williams didn’t just turn heads with her game, she turned heads with her outfit.
Asked what her daily routine had been during an excellent first week, Konta said: “I have been going to Hunky Dory a lot”.
When the subject cropped up again in her post-match news conference, she explained the idea was to marry the “youth and fun-ness” of the pop culture world with tradition.
“She has the mental side to complement her tennis now, she’s very consistent, she does believe so much more in herself and you can see it clearly on court”. “I don’t think about the numbers until I finish the match and someone mentions it. I think it’s a good fact that I’ve been able to win that many matches”. At 40-0 down in her service game, Kasatkina saved one match point.
In other matches, Japan’s Kei Nishikori beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ousted fellow Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/4). “Everything I’ve been trying to work on was kind of clicking”.
“I’m just very grateful for all the people that do come out”.
The top seed and defending champion saved two third-set points against Seppi before reeling off the next four points to clinch it 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), his 33rd straight victory over Italian opposition.
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“That’s what I wanted to do with the top”.
