On Saturday she did so in dominant and further record-setting fashion, thumping unseeded Swede Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-1 to move into the round of 16 and record an Open Era record 307th win at a grand slam tournament.
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Williams’ success took her to 307, one ahead of Navratilova and equal with Roger Federer’s mark for men.
After that match, an exhausted Williams sighed, “A win’s a win”, revealing more and more what an emotionally debilitating pursuit the chase for the Grand Slam was becoming.
The Williams sisters met in the quarterfinals previous year when Serena won in three sets, 6-2, 1-6 and 6-3.
After her latest win and breaking the record, Serena told the media, “Wow”.
Larsson, who matched her previous best from 2014 by making it this far in NY, could not live with her American opponent and saw two losses of serve in the second set cost any chance of a major upset. “Hopefully I’ll just get better”. “[And] she was placing [her serves] really good and also mixing up what she does on her serve”.
“I was making a lot of unforced errors and (Lorenzi) is very solid, and doesn t give you cheap points”, Murray said.
Radwanska’s fourth-round opponent will be Croatia’s Ana Konjuh, who outlasted American Varvara Lepchenko 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
She added: ‘To be up there with both men and women is something that’s super rare, and it actually feels really good’.
Meanwhile sixth-seeded Venus Williams stayed on track for a possible semifinal clash with sister Serena by sprinting past German Julia Goerges 6-2, 6-3 to reach the third round.
Konta admits that she is still recovering from the “traumatic experience” of her second-round match, when she collapsed on court, was hyper-ventilating and needed ice treatment.
Larsson, who equaled her career-best finish at the U.S. Open by virtue of defeating Denisa Allertova in the second round, proved just why she is now in the midst of a career-best season, getting on the scoreboard a game later, much to the delight of a very appreciative crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“So I’ll be working on perfection”, Williams said after the win.
“I think I was playing good tennis from the beginning”, she said. “I know it’s under control now”.
Halep appeared poised to ease through to the round of 16 after taking the first set in just 24 minutes but Babos found her composure, claiming the second to force a decider.
“I’m just disappointed with the amount of errors I made”.
It will be the 27-year-old Radwanska’s fifth trip to the fourth round at the US Open but she has failed to advance beyond that stage in NY.
Serena arrived at the year’s final Grand Slam with concerns swirling around a sore shoulder that hampered her at the Rio Olympics and forced her to pull out of a tournament in Cincinnati.
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In other results, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Caroline Garcia of France (25) 6-2, 6-3, while fifth seed Simona Halep of Romania advanced in three sets, beating 31st seed Timea Babos of Hungary 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.
