Sports/Reuters picNEW YORK, Sept 4 – Serena Williams sped past another milestone yesterday as her 307th Grand slam match win took her past Martina Navratilova’s record and into the fourth round of the US Open.
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For two-time champion Venus Williams, a straight sets win is just what she needed heading into the second week of the US Open.
That carries her past Martina Navratilova for most by a woman, and ties her with Roger Federer for the most by any player.
Opening the match on the front foot, Williams wasted no time in claiming the first break of the match in the second game to open an early 2-0 lead.
Other duels for places in the last 16 see men’s third seed Stan Wawrinka a two-time Grand Slam champion and a two-time semi-finalist in NY, take on 64th-ranked Briton Daniel Evans while sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori, beaten finalist in 2014, plays France’s Nicolas Mahut.
Serena and Venus Williams, the sisters with 29 grand slams and a stack of records between them, will try to maintain a collision course at the U.S. Open on Monday when they play their fourth-round matches. “Like I always said, I’m always trying something different to find a peak performance, something I started recently”, she said.
“Well, the thing is, you never really reach flawless, so that’s why you always go back to practice (laughter)”.
“When I was more patient and waited for the right balls to go for I played much, much better and dictated more of the points”.
In the fourth round, Serena, the top seed in this tournament and world number on, will face Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and Venus will face Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic.
Halep, a semifinalist at Flushing Meadows a year ago, rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the deciding set and appeared to struggle with the power of the big-serving Hungarian, who blasted five aces and 25 total winners.
“There’s no shot for me that’s more exciting than hitting an ace”, she said. The 28 unforced errors The return game: She won only 13 of 40 points on King’s first serves. The fluorescent pink sleeves, she said, make her think of the superhero characters Wonder Woman and Superwoman.
After that, Williams played only one event before the U.S. Open, losing in the third round of the Olympics.
Next up for Halep is 11th-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro who advanced with a tidy 6-4 6-3 win over Russian Elena Vesnina.
Radwanska came into the U.S. Open knowing she could become the world’s No. 1-ranked player if certain scenarios played out in her favor.
NEW YORK (AP) Maybe Serena Williams simply wanted to put on a better show for her pal Beyonce.
Elsewhere, Serena’s sister Venus also progressed, along with fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska and fifth seed Simona Halep.
Serena Williams further added that ” it is super rare to reach the tally of 307 both in Men and Women.
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Radwanska beat France’s Caroline Garcia, an opponent she has had frequent difficulty with, 6-2, 6-3.
